


Best Way Not To Get Your Heart Broken Pretend You Don't Have One

by LynneDragn



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Angst, F/M, Family, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 01:59:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 30,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4245240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LynneDragn/pseuds/LynneDragn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maka has had suicidal thoughts in the past but her father has finally pushed her over the edge. Literally. Stood at the edge of a cliff she has the absolute intention of taking her own life. Will the white haired boy who sits near the cliffs regularly save her? Suicidal stuff, read so at own risk. Disclaimer. Continuing this now!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Cliff

Razors pain you;  
Rivers are damp.  
Acid stains you;  
Drugs cause cramps.  
Guns aren't lawful;  
Nooses give.  
Gas smells awful;  
You might as well live.

-Dorothy Parker

The cold November wind whistled through the trees, flowing through Maka's hair and carrying it to the side, hiding the bottom part of her face, her full, plumb lips hidden behind the ash blonde locks. Her hair dropped as the wind subdued, revealing where a single tear crawled down her face from her almond shaped emerald eyes. She blinked quickly as she wiped away any evidence of the tears, closing her eyes so her heavy lashes rest on her cheeks.

Maka opened them again to glare down off the edge of the cliff, her eyes narrowed into slits. They were no longer sad. No, they were angry. The hate that burned in her emerald orbs was unimaginable and she almost stepped back because she was so infuriated she didn't want to give the bullies what they wanted.

Almost.

She sighed heavily before closing her eyes again, hanging her head back and letting go of her pent up anger. She listened to the waves crashing into the bottom of the cliff violently, and a small smile played at her lips. The thought that she would be engulfed in those waves in a few moments was oddly reassuring. The thought made her… happy.

Maka finally opened her eyes again and looked down at the navy blue water, the waves so dark they were almost black. Suitable for the situation as they would be used to take her life. Guilt gnawed in her stomach as she thought of her family, her Mama and Papa. Yeah, they weren't together anymore, Maka thought bitterly, but maybe they can be brought together by this, maybe they'd mourn her together. The thought of this gave her back her confidence, she sighed with contentment before hanging a foot over the edge, letting her weight fall forward with the full intention getting swallowed up by the deadly waves. She fell alright, she fell hard.

Just not the right way.

She winced and rubbed the back of her head, the soft grass under her palms made her almost groan. She felt a questionable amount of weight spread across her torso and opened her eyes in confusion, only for them to snap open in shock.

A boy was sprawled on top of her. He was about 18 or 19, two or three years older than herself, standing at the age of 16. His weight was kept off her by his hands, which were planted on either side of her head. His features were unusual, he had dark, crimson eyes which were wide with astonishment. They were eyes that never wavered, not for a second, she was almost convinced he could see right into her soul. He had a mass of spikey, gravity-defying snow-white hair that looked messy but fashionably so. He was very handsome, with an aristocratic face that she assumed drawn all the ladies in, but right now, most would run.

Because he was angry.

Not only angry, he was shocked. Astonished. He looked at her with absolute disbelief and made no move to get off. He mumbled, his voice was rich and deep, and from the small sentence she picked up a slight British undertone, but his words shocked her more than his accent.

"You were really going to jump, weren't you?"

The sentence made Maka's eyes almost well up with tears. She turned her head away, drawing her hands up to push at his chest. He took the hint and rolled off her, though he took her with him. He stood and grabbed her upper arm, pulling her to her feet, before drawing her away from the edge and back to the road.

Maka thought he'd leave it there. Wish her well and wave her off but was she wrong.

He whipped around to face her, his eyes no longer shocked but angry. Maka stepped back, startled but not scared.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" he snarled at her, grabbing her upper arms to shake her.

"What is it to you?" she exclaimed, trying to pull herself from his grasp but to no avail, he growled at her and tightened his grip. Not enough to hurt her, but enough to keep her in place, and gain her attention.

"Are you stupid? You were going to kill yourself!" He almost yelled the last sentence. Maka winced at the bluntness of it, she never thought of the words 'suicide' or 'killing herself', hearing it was a slight wake up call.

Not that she was going to let him know that. She widened her eyes in mock surprise, shaking her head in disbelief. "No!" she said sarcastically, dropping the sarcasm when another growl rumbled in his chest.

"Look, it's none of your business." She began, finally getting out from his grip. "You did it, you saved the day. You can leave me alone now," she turned to start to walk away, but a hand on her wrist stopped her. Maka turned to glare back but she looked feeble compared to the furious crimson eyes that glared back at her.

"You don't understand what you're doing," he said in a very low, calm voice. Calm yes, but his tone betrayed his absolute rage. His eyes burned into her own and she found she couldn't look away. When he saw she wasn't going to walk away he dropped her wrist and ran a hand through his stark white locks in irritation. "Some people don't get the luxury of choice," he ranted as he eyed her, looking almost desperate. "The fact that you wake up in the morning means you get to live to see another day. Stop being so damn ungrateful!" he roared at her, standing forward again to grip her shoulders and shake her once more.

Maka just stared at him in disbelief, her lips parting slightly as she looked up at him in awe, he sighed and let her go, hanging his head as he took a step back.

"Don't try that again," he murmured, "You don't understand what you're doing."

Maka suppressed the urge to press a hand to her mouth, or gasp. But she fought everything that would betray her shock. Why did he care? She thought in astonishment. It's not his problem so why is he taking the time to scold her? Yeah, teacher and councillors pretend to care but that's their job. They get paid to scold her. But this boy doesn't.

"..Okay." She said finally, and the boy snapped his head up in surprise, looking for any hints of dishonesty. He narrowed his gaze.

"I don't believe you." He said bluntly. Maka sighed.

"You don't really have t-" she was cut off by his glare. "Really, I understand now. I was stupid and I shouldn't have done that. I get it, you were right. I just… I just thought I'd give everyone what they want." She whispered the last part brokenly, her voice breaking at the end.

"You're saying that people want you dead?" the boy said in a soft tone, the kindest voice she'd heard him speak in yet. Maka shook her head rapidly, turning her face away.

"No, I'm saying no one would give a shit if I was dead." Her own eyes widened at her own statement, along with the boy who fell back a step, his eyes narrowing as he looked heart broken. Maka's breathe caught in her throat at his expression. She shook her head quickly, making herself dizzy. "Doesn't matter. I won't try that again, you can count on that. I'm tough."

He scoffed and shook the previous expression from his face. He buried his hands in his pockets but still eyed her seriously.

"The fact that you were just stood and the edge of a cliff denies that claim, sweetheart."

Maka scowled at him and began walking again, wrapping her arms around herself. She was stopped again, except the boy didn't stop her this time, he led her in the opposite direction.

"H-hey! Where are we going?" she stuttered, trying to pull her arms away from him.

"My place," he answered casually.

Maka's breathe caught in her throat. She began struggling furiously, making a low chuckle burst from the boys lips.

"Jeez, calm down. I can't just let you walk away after what I just saw, right?" he explained, still looking ahead as they walked. "If you were me, would you just walk away?"

Maka's eyes widened here. She haden't thought of that, he must feel he has some kind of responsibility to see she would recover, that's how she'd feel if she was in his position anyway.

"I have a roommate at my place," he continued. "You'll like Tsubaki, she's very nice. I think she'll be a good influence and we can build up from there."

"What do you mean build up?" Maka asked in a strained voice. He chuckled again.

"Making you friends, stupid. How can you recover if you have no one helping you? We build you a good support system it will have a more positive effect on you. It'll help, trust me."

She shook her head again, her throat closed with disbelief. What is this guy doing?

"What's your name anyway?" he asked, finally releasing her wrist to walk alongside her.

"Maka. Maka Albarn." She told him somewhat reluctantly. He smiled and paused, holding a hand out to her.

"I'm Soul Evans. Nice to meet you, Maka." He said with a grin, exposing shark-like teeth. Maka looked at him for a moment before her lips curled into a smile, his grin contagious, and wrapping her hand around his.

"Good to meet you too, Soul."


	2. Phone Call

Maka stared in awe at the apartment she was led into. It was large and spacious, nothing like her hole of an apartment. She currently stood in the living room, which was complete with a balcony and a flat screen television with play stations and games, literally the works. She did see a few woman touches around the room, paintings and flowers. She whipped around the face Soul, her expression betraying her bewilderment. Soul raised a brow at her. They stood like that for a moment before Soul finally broke the silence.

"What?" he drawls, making Maka huff and gesture at the room.

"You call this apartment? Jeez, it's huge!"

Soul just shrugs and makes his way to the big L-shaped couch in front of his television, he slumps into it lazily before fishing his phone out of his pocket and pressing it to his ear.

Maka trailed behind him and sat awkwardly on a love seat, the furthest seat away from Soul. Yeah, maybe he saved her life and everything but if she'd wanted to be saved she wouldn't have attempted suicide! She doesn't understand how he can act so normal, so casual around her after witnessing her at her most vulnerable state, and him seeing her like that makes her far from comfortable.

She shuffles slightly in her seat, wrapping her arms around her torso like always, she immediately relaxes. She is oblivious to Soul watching her from the corner of his eye, his own narrowing slightly at her obvious discomfort, but his attention is drawn away when a familiar voice chimes in his ear.

"Soul?" Tsubaki's voice asks on the other side of the line.

"Yeah, hey Tsu." Soul greets her, standing to make his way to the balcony for some privacy, ignoring Maka's eyeing following him suspiciously for it was obvious it was her he was about to speak of.

When outside, he could finally release the calm façade he was trying to pull off in Maka's presence. Hell, how could he be calm? He just witnessed someone attempt suicide. He's seen it before, the cliffs is one of his favourite spots to relax and compose. But it was an inevitability to see people make their way over the edge of the cliff in pieces, sobs breaking through the lips and floods of tears running down their face. They seemed to have it so hard but they'd never ever jump. Most hardly even got anywhere near the edge before running away from the place.

Then there was Maka. She didn't cry, or even hesitate. That's what made him watch, made him worry. She walked right over to the very edge of the cliffs ledge almost casually, almost like there wasn't a 60 foot drop no more than 4 centimeters from where she planted her feet. Her face took on multiple expressions, sadness, betrayal, anger… but then absolute contentment. The emotion graced her face as she hung her foot over the ledge and let her weight fall forward…

Never had he saw that, in all the people he saw make their way for the cliffs. He shook his head free of the memory, and finally responded to Tsubaki's voice pounding in his ear.

"Soul? Soul! Is everything alright?" she asked, worry plain in her voice.

"Yeah, yeah, m'fine." Soul coughed to clear his throat before continuing. "But I really need your help. When will you be back, you still at Stars?"

"Yes, I got here about an hour ago. Blackstar and I were going to head over in a couple of hours. Why, do you need us? What's wrong?"

Soul sighed, finally letting the worry and stress lace through his voice. "There was a girl at the cliffs, Tsubaki. But she wasn't like the others, I literally just about saved her, but she was really going to do it, Tsu. She was definitely going to jump."

"Oh my god!" she cried, her voice going higher in shock. "Is she there? You didn't leave her did you?"

"No, no, of course I didn't!" he assured her and heard her sigh with relief over the line. "No, she's here now. But I don't know what to do, she's so…" she trailed off, not being able to find the words. "Calm. But I can tell it's fake. She's acting emotionless, Tsu. But she keeps wrapping her arms around herself, like... she's trying to hold herself together." His voice cracked at the end, he shuddered lightly.

"Soul, you did the right thing." Tsubaki told him in a light, reassuring voice that made him relax his tense stance. "But she's not saved yet, Soul. She's still broken."

"I know," he sighed, finally turning around to look back into his apartment through the window of the balcony. To his relief, Maka was still there, she haden't tried to flee. She was just… sitting there. Staring blankly at the floor. He turned his back again, he didn't want her to see him distressed.

"I understand. But we can fix her, right?" he asked, somewhat desperately.

"Of course we can, Soul." Tsubaki said confidently. Soul sighed with relief, smiling into the phone. He chuckled as he finally noticed Blackstar's voice in the background, demanding to know what's going on.

"Put Star on, Tsu."

He heard some rummaging before hearing his friends booming voice.

"SOUL! Why did you ring your Gods girlfriend and not your God?" he shouted, making Soul lean away from the phone slightly as he grimaced.

"Jeez, Star, lower you voice. I needed her help with something is all. Hey, you're around 16 right?"

"I am 16, hotshot. Just cause you're 2 years older doesn't give you the right the disrespect your God!"

"Oh, I am aware. Anyway, does a girl named Maka Albarn go to our school by any chance? I'm a senior so I wouldn't know."

The line went quiet for a while, Soul frowned slightly. "Star?"

"…You know Maka, Soul?"

"…Do you?" Soul asked in disbelief.

Blackstar sighed and cursed lightly. Soul widened his eyes in confusion and astonishment. He'd never heard his best friend act so serious.

"This… girl. The one you were talking about to Tsubaki? That wasn't Maka right? Please tell me that wasn't Maka." He begged, his voice strained and cracking at the end.

"Her name is Maka Albarn," Soul said slowly and precisely, he couldn't hear Blackstar breathing on the other line anymore. "I met her today at the cliffs, where she was about to jump. She wasn't messing around Star, I only just saved her."

Blackstar let out a puff of air and cursed again before coughing to hide a sob. Soul's eyes widened again. "What exactly is your relationship with Maka, Star?"

"…"

"Star?"

There was a tense silence before he finally caved, his voice absolutely heart broken.

"Maka is wa- Is my sister. I was adopted into her family as a kid but I left about four years ago, when we were 12 I think, because her parents got a divorce and the adoption agency decided I shouldn't remain in the family because the divorce might cause me stress, so they moved me on. She lives on the other side of the city, bad neighborhood." Blackstar sighed before continuing.

"She's never had it easy, she was bullied for the entire time I was with her. I'd scare them off but they always found a way around me, it must have gotten so much worse…"

He trailed off and Soul couldn't contain his shock. Maka was Blackstar's sister? This is insane. He cleared his throat again as he took in the new information.

"She'd kill herself over bullying?"

"Jeez, Soul if you'd have seen it. These kids were ruthless, absolutely merciless. They'd do everything to tear her down, to break her. It was heart breaking to watch and I'm tough! I can't even explain…"

There was another silence, before Blackstar spoke again, his voice now hard. And angry.

"Is Maka still there Soul?" he asked in a taut voice.

"..Yeah."

"Good. Keep her there. We're going to have a little… chat."

"Star, I don't think that's a good idea. I already gave her a telling off and I really do thin-"

"You don't know my sister, Soul." He snapped, outraged. "When she makes a decision, she sticks to it. If she wanted to take her own life, she would've thought it through. Thoroughly. She reckless. And stubborn. If she want to kill herself, then she'll kill herself." Soul blinked at the outburst, and even checked she was still there over his shoulder. He sighed with relief when she was.

"Fine. I get it. I'll keep her here."

"Good. Me and Tsubaki are on our way." And the line went dead.

Soul sighed in exasperation and stared at his phone before making his way inside, sighing as he made his way over to the small blonde who'd caused his so much stress in the 45 minuets he knew her.


	3. Reunion

When you were young;  
You thought you'd never die  
Found out you could;  
But too scared to try.  
Looked in the mirror;  
And Said goodbye.  
Climbed to the roof to see if you could fly.

Maka shuffled awkwardly in her seat as Soul made his way back into the room, distress plain on his face. He look troubled. She raised a brow at him as he glared at the hardwood floor beneath their feet, before finally speaking up.

"What's wrong?" she asked suspiciously, her brow still arched up.

Soul sighed before casting his eyes to her, his own narrowed with worry.

"Well, actually my roommate it on her way here…" he began guardedly, looking away from her as he trailed off.

"Yeah…" Maka urged him on, her own eyes narrowing as she tilted her head at the man.

"Yeah, she's bringing her boyfriend along also…" he visibly winced then, making Maka lean forward to eye his expression.

"What's the problem?" she asked, an edge of annoyance lacing through her voice.

Soul sighed again before standing up, making his way over to the kitchen before calling over his shoulder.

"You'll see. You hungry?"

Maka opened her mouth to call him out on changing the subject, before snapping it shut. Why should she even care? She grumbled as she stood to follow him, wrapping her arms comfortably around her torso as she leaned in the doorway to eye him make his way skilfully around the kitchen.

"Well?" he asked as he continued making his way around, pulling a couple of glasses from a cupboard.

"…No, I'm good." She told him, turning to head back into the living room again.

"Maka." Soul said in warning, making her freeze and turn stiffly to face him, her expression blank.

"You're not hungry." It was more of a statement, but his eyes bored into hers as he said so, making her cast her eyes away sheepishly, looking anywhere but at him.

"No, I'm not. Thanks anyway."

Soul eyed her a second longer before placing a glass onto the counter, spreading his palms over it as he leant forward to eye her. She squirmed under his gaze.

"When's the last time you ate?" he asked suddenly, making Maka flinch. She thought back, tilting her head in concentration. Two days ago? Three? She couldn't remember.

"Before," she lied. "Before I left my place I stopped at a café."

"You suck a lying, Maka." He told her sternly, his eyes revealing the anger she was already so accustomed with. Maka attempted to meet his furious gaze with a hard stare, but her expression looked pitiful compared to his. She finally dropped her eyes to the floor.

"Two or three days ago. I was out of cash, and I don't each much anyway."

Soul's face took no expression after her confession, he did close his eyes slowly before gesturing at the table in the middle of the kitchen.

"Sit down," he told her quietly before turning his back. "I'll order out when Tsubaki and… her boyfriend get here."

Maka's stomach clenched at the sound of food, she was heading toward the table when she heard a key turning in a lock. She missed Soul's shoulders tensing, but she turned in time to watch him turn around cautiously in the direction of the front door.

"Seems like they're here," he breathed, making his way around the counter and past Maka, heading back into the living room.

Maka followed him a moment after, somewhat reluctantly. She got there just in time to see the door swing open, before meeting a pair of fuming pale green eyes.

Maka felt her own eyes widen as she took in her older brothers appearance. Confusion and shock flooded over her as he mouth dropped open, stopping mid-step. He had traded in his previous assassin/ninja outfit for a pair of boy-ish joggers and pale grey t-shirt. His pale blue hair was just as spikey as always but it looked much more tamed. Her attention turned to the girl at his side as he pulled his hand from hers. She was pretty. Beautiful even. Her raven black hair was impossibly long, even in its high ponytail, Maka predicted it would fall behind her knees when let loose. Her flawless hour glass figure was modest and natural, her kind dark blue eyes made her approachable. Trusting.

A snarl brought her attention back to her furious brother.

Blackstar stormed forward towards her, his green eyes alight with fury. Maka thought he was going to grab her shoulders and shake her, just as Soul did. Or get right up in her face as he yelled at her, scaring her into attempting to make the promise she couldn't keep. She squeezed her eyes shut as he got closer, waiting for one of the two.

She felt two strong arms wrap around her.

Blackstar was hysterical. Her brave big brother, the boy she shared her crib with. The boy who fought off her bullies and had no fear she knew of what so ever, was crying. Sobbing on her shoulder and struggling for breath, breathing uncontrollably. For the first time in a long time Maka felt a waves of emotions flow over her. Guilt, regret, sadness… She felt her eyes well up with tears as she finally returned his embrace, causing another sob to burst from the boy's lips.

"Don't you… ever… scare me like that… again." He stuttered, gasping between words. Maka chuckled sadly, hugging him tighter.

"I'm sorry I worried you," she muttered.

Blackstar stood straight then, and Maka realised she had to hang her head back to look up at him. He'd grown. A lot. He looked at her expression before sighing, and wrapping her arms around her again. This time, he was the one doing the comforting. It was Maka's face buried in his neck, him making shushing noises to her. It was only then she realised she was crying.

"It's alright Maka, shush, shush…" he whispered, swaying them slightly in a comforting motion, making Maka cry out more.

"Where the hell… have you been?" Maka gasped in between cries, just about making Blackstar's heart break. Why wasn't he there for her when she needed him? Would it have killed him to pay a visit, check on her? He asked himself before drawing an arm up to press him palm over his eyes as he continued to hug his little sister.

The two on lookers fought tears themselves. Tsubaki didn't win that battle, she brushed away some stray tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, a palm pressed over her chest as she watched the scene before her.

Soul's jaw was taut, his palms clenched into fists as he eyes the scene, turning his face away to glare at the floor. How had this girl made him care for her so much in so little time? The sobs that broke from her lips wrenched at his heart and made breathe struggle to pass him lips. He hung his head as he listened to the two sibling's reunion, fighting the bewilderment of seeing his best friend so upset, so serious. It was so painfully out of character it made it so difficult to watch, it made it so real.

Soul looked up as the two pulled away from each other and looked to himself and Tsubaki. He stifled a wince as he knew what was to come now. They were to sit down and talk of it. He himself was reluctant to discuss this matter. God knew what Maka was feeling right now.


	4. That Night

Soul sat stiffly on his couch, Black star sat beside him. On the other end Maka and Tsubaki sat beside each other, looking much more at ease then the two men.

"So," Soul started, wishing he haden't when three head turned towards him. "…We going to talk about this?"

"Talk about what?" Maka said without a moment's hesitation, all emotion stripped from her voice and her eyes cold and hard as they landed on Soul.

"Maka, you know we're going to have to talk about this sometime," Blackstar told her, his voice strained.

"I don't see why." She replied stubbornly, but Soul felt some unwanted relief when her glare moved from him to the boy beside him.

"Maka…" Tsubaki said softly, placing a hand over hers. Maka looked up to her sharply, but her eyes softened as they landed on Tsubaki's kind ones. She didn't know anyone could be so kind. She didn't know such kindness could exist. "We're all here for you," she told her. "And you won't get better if you don't talk about this."

Maka cast her eyes to the ground, muttering stubbornly: "Getting better requires for me to be sick. I'm not sick. I'm fi-"

"Fine?" Soul sneered, finally losing his patience. All eyes snapped towards him but he didn't care. He stood up from the couch to walk behind it, rubbing a hand over his face in irritation.

"Maka, you are far from fine." He told her, his eyes stern as he glared right back at her, no longer belittled by her own. "I found you standing at the edge of a cliff, with the full intention to jump. Is that fine? Jeez, Maka can't you just be happy people care enough to help you? We just want you to get better! I've known you for barley an hour and you've already made me worry more than I have in the past month!"

Maka looked up at him in surprise. But before Soul could feel any relief about finally seeing some emotion on her face, her face went blank. Hard and cold, just as her voice. It scared him.

"Well, I'm sorry to be such a burden to you," she told him bluntly, completely ignoring everything he said but the last sentence. "But I didn't ask for your help, you more or less dragged me here against my will." Soul growled, preventing Maka from going on.

"You're not a god damn burden," he snarled, glaring at her furiously. "We're just worried and we need to know what's wrong otherwise we can't do anything about it."

Maka dropped her gaze, her head bowed as she responded.

"So, you're not just asking due to morbid curiosity?"

"Are you kidding me? No, of course not, we're concerned. We need to know why, Maka."

Maka sighed in exasperation before lifting her head, her eyes betraying her distress.

"What do you want to know?"

"When this all started," Blackstar said immediately, he obviously thought this was his fault.

"After Mama and Papa first started… arguing, I guess. You know what I mean Blackstar."

Blackstar's eyes narrowed in confusion before widening in realisation. He'd forgotten all about it, Maka realised. He's always been good and blocking painful memories from his mind but she didn't think he was that good.

"You mean-that…It was that bad?"

Maka turned her face away again, suppressing a groan. This was the last thing she wanted to talk about.

"Spirit really went to lengths to see that no one found out, huh? I thought maybe Mama would've told you when she finally found out." She said, her voice completely emotionless. Blackstar's eyes widened, he looked bewildered. Then disgusted.

"Maka, what happened that night?" he said in a strained voice, reluctance seeping through his words.

"Blackstar, I really don't want t-"

"What happened?" He sneered, his lips curling up to expose his teeth. Maka leaned back, her eyes wide. Blackstar seemed to wake up, blinking and looking around before finally looking back at Maka. His expression morphed to an apologetic one.

"I-I'm sorry, Maka." He began, his voice cracking. "I know that it – whatever it was – was hard for you. That was… insensitive of me."

Soul looked on in bafflement. Was this the same Blackstar from yesterday? He'd seemed to grown double his age in a few hours. And what were they talking about, 'that night'? Soul buried his face in his hands, stifling the one hundredth sigh today. Maka had it worse than he's ever imagined.

"It's okay, Star." Maka said quietly, her head bowed. "I just… I can't talk about that. I'm sorry, I just-jus-" the breathe caught in her throat. She was going hysterical. Was it that bad? Blackstar thought to himself as he watched as Tsubaki wrapped her arms around Maka, making shushing noises. What could have possibly happened that night to affect her so badly? To push her to go to such lengths…

Tsubaki had finally calmed Maka and was currently sitting on the balcony with her. Tsubaki was laughing and Soul could see a smile tugging at Maka's lips before she gave into laughter. A smirk tugged on his own lips before he turned around to face Blackstar, any humour present on his face being wiped off in a second.

"What is 'that night' you were talking about, Blackstar?" Soul asked abruptly, almost causing Blackstar to drop the dish he was currently drying. He knew Soul was curious but he was normally one the beat around the bush, at least a little bit. Blackstar looked at him a second, noticing the creases above his eyebrows that signified stress, and his brows look permanently turned down in a worried frown. Blackstar raised a brow.

"…What?" Soul drawled after watching him analyse his expression for a good thirty seconds.

"Nothing, you just seem so stressed."

"Well of course I'm stres- Wait, don't change the subject!"

Blackstar placed the dish down in defeat before turning to face Soul, leaning on the counter behind him.

"I left out a few details about why I left Maka's family," Blackstar admitted, he carried on in a rush after catching Soul's glare. "With good reason! I'm just so used to avoiding the subject it slipped my mind. I'd almost tricked myself into forgetting before all this." He gestured around them, as if gesturing at the situation itself.

"Why would you want to trick yourself into forgetting something?" Soul asked cautiously, Blackstar groaned, his eyes going blank as if reliving a memory. Soul shook the urge to shake him.

"Because it was just so horrible," he said quietly, Soul had to strain to hear him. "I can't tell you what happened because I don't know! ...But I can tell you what I seen." Soul nodded in encouragement, urging him on. Blackstar dropped his eyes the the floor before beginning.

"Maka… she got hurt. I don't know where or how, I just know she did. I was the one who found her. I'd just got home from staying at a friend's. Maka's mum wasn't in but that wasn't weird, she worked a lot and was only really home in the middle of the day. Maka's Dad wasn't there either which I found a bit strange, but not too weird to dwell on. Anyways, as soon as I got in the living room I knew something was wrong. There was… blood. All over the couch and looked as if someone had literally poured it on the floor there was just that much. I automatically got defensive, I didn't think there was anyone else in the house because it was just so quiet. Maka was always there, playing music or cooking or cleaning. It was never so quiet." Blackstar shook his head before going on.

"I then noticed there was a kind of trail, like someone had been dragged through the blood and down the hall. I followed it, thinking someone was hurt, I near enough had a heart attack when the trail ended at Maka's door."

Blackstar's breathe caught in his throat. Soul couldn't breathe, his stomach clenched in horror and anticipation and Blackstar couldn't even fully tell him what happened to the girl stood on his balcony.

"You'd think I'd freak out, but I tried to stay calm. Till I found the door was locked. I broke it down only to find Maka laying on her bed, blood covering the covers, the sheets the pillows… her."

Blackstar cleared his throat, the sound making Soul jump. He'd been speaking so quietly, in such a low, pained voice that the sudden noise startled him. Blackstar looked up and spoke in his regular voice as he concluded his story.

"I called an ambulance and they told me not to move her in case anything was broken. When they got there they scurried me out the apartment because they said it was now a crime scene. Then no one told me what had happened. I never tried to get it out of Maka, she was never the same afterwards, and her Mum and Dad were careful never to speak about it in front of me. I knew nothing except that afterwards, Kami and Spirit's relationship completely fell apart. And Maka broke."

Black rubbed his chin, his eyes narrowed in thought.

"I always thought that Kami had always knew what had happened to Maka. But from what Maka said now I doubt it. Spirit obviously had something to do with it if he wanted to hide it," he mumbled thoughtfully, making Soul's eyes grow wide.

"Isn't this Spirit Maka's father? You think he's try and hurt her?"

"What? No, no, but I do think he has something to do with it."

Soul just shook his head. Blackstar wasn't making any sense and if he wanted to get the truth, he wasn't going to get it from him.

His head automatically turned towards the girl who was currently making her way back into the building, Soul caught the end of her conversation.

"…but are you sure it's okay?"

"Maka, Maka. It's fine! Seriously, do you honestly think Soul would let you out of our sight?"

Maka just sighed, making Soul chuckle as made his entrance, standing in the door frame between the kitchen and living room.

"What you guys talking about?" Tsubaki turned her head towards her roommate and friend, blinking innocently.

"Oh, Maka is going to be living with us for now on." She said casually.

"Oh?" Soul raised a brow, leaning on the door frame. "And you decided that just now? On the balcony? In the space of ten minutes?"

"Yup!" Tsubaki said excitedly, earning a giggle from Maka, who turned her eyes to look at Soul apologetically.

"Are you sure this is alright?" she said awkwardly, rolling on her heels slightly. Soul chuckled and shook his head, a low chuckle rumbling in his chest, making tingles spread through Maka's stomach. What on earth was that?

"No, it's fine. This works out well, I'm sure Tsubaki gets pissed with just me lounging around here." He winked at Tsubaki who shook her head, Maka sighed with relief.

"Okay then. Well, I guess I need to get some things from my plac-"

"I'll tag along." Blackstar said, walking into the room, slapping Soul on the back as he passed, before walking to stand beside Maka, throwing an arm over her shoulders and flashing a childish grin.

"We have some catching up to do, Sis."

For the first time, Soul watched as a genuine smile spread across Maka's face. She beamed up at Blackstar before patting his back, laughing lightly.

"Sure, we'll go tomorrow. I'm beat."

Soul chuckled and watched the scene with a content smile and raised brows. He folded his arms over his chest as he eyed the small blonde, shaking his head in astonishment that she made his life so eventful in the space of a few hours.


	5. Sleep

"Soul, Soul, Soul, Soul, Soul…"

Soul groaned into his pillow, pulling himself further into the covers, near enough tucking them over his head. His bare back was being repeatedly prodded with what he assumed was a kitchen utensil as he could smell bacon and eggs. Normally, he was in the moment the smell hit his nose, but his insomnia kept him up late last night and he fell asleep an hour before. Not even food could get him up.

"Soul, Soul, Soul, Soul…" Maka went on relentlessly, the prodding making him genuinely believe he was bruising.

"Makaaaaaa…" he groaned into his pillow, burying his head further. There was a moment of silence, even the prodding stopped.

"…"

"…"

"You finished?" he grumbled, lifting his head up slightly to look at her.

Her long hair, which she usually left hanging past her hips, was still in its messy bun she'd put it in for bed the night before. He could tell she'd slept well, for Tsubaki had spent the night at Blackstar's so Maka had the bed to herself. She was in her pyjama bottoms and a baggy shirt that more or less hung off her, exposing her collar bones and one shoulder. She looked at him with wide, innocent eyes before continuing with her previous ministrations.

"Soul, Soul, Soul, So-"

"Alright! Alright, I'm up, for fuc-"

"Less of that," she warned, pointing a spatula at him. He rubbed his bare back and glared at the tool before at Maka through heavy lidded eyes. He then turned to pull and clean top from his wardrobe and thrown it on, turning around with raised brows.

"Happy? I'm up and cuss-free. What do you want?"

Maka frowned playfully.

"No need to be so rude," she teased. "I tried to let you sleep in but then your breakfast would get cold and I am aware you're all weird about just heating it up."

Soul grumbled about it 'not tasting the same' as he made his way from his bedroom, Maka at his heels, chuckling at him as he rubbed the back of his bed-mussed head.

He was in better spirits as he began digging into his breakfast. As he was finished he raised a brow as he watched while Maka stood from her chair and made her way over to the balcony. She'd been here a good two weeks and she spent more time out on the balcony than in the apartment itself.

"So, how you doing?" Soul asked as he wiped his hands with a napkin, leaning away from his now empty plate.

Maka stifled a sigh at the question. He'd ask once every three days, give or take. At first she acted clueless, pretending he was not referring to her attempted suicide and responding with a simple: "I'm good, you?" but that's just make him make her spend more time talking about it. She turned around stiffly, making her way back to the table to stand behind one of the chairs, knowing this was a conversation she couldn't postpone.

"I'm doing fine, actually." She said, making Soul tilt his head as if analysing her.

"Really? I'm concerned about your frequent visits to the balcon-"

"Why, think I'm going to jump off?" Maka asked, her patience wearing thin.

Soul narrowed his eyes dangerously at her.

"No, of course not. It's just like you're trying to avoid the addressing the circumstances."

"I'm getting much better at talking about things," Maka argued stubbornly.

"Oh yeah? You call this getting better?" he gestured between the two of them, his eyes looking doubtful. Maka met his gaze with a hard stare.

"I've been practicing." She told him, trying to make her voice hard and cold but instead it came out feeble.

"It's not piano lessons, sweetheart." He fired back, drawling out the words sarcastically, matching the voice she'd attempted with ease. She glared angrily at him and he looked away, glaring at the floor before going on.

"Maka, just being here wont make you any better," he told her sternly, looking up to catch her eye. "We changed the scenery, not the situation. We need to talk about things and make improvement before you can start recovering."

Maka glared at him from behind the chair and he leaned further back to return it before sighing, finally casting his eyes away. Maka grinned in accomplishment before turning back around, making her way back to the balcony.

"Don't think this conversation is over!" Soul called over his shoulder as he stood from his chair and made his way around the kitchen, beginning to making himself a coffee.

"Yeah, yeah." Maka called back, sliding the balcony's door closed.

Soul exhaled deeply in exasperation, shaking his head as he poured the boiling water into his cup. He can't deny that he's seen a great improvement with Maka. Just as he thought, Tsubaki had a very positive affect on her and Maka obviously took a shine to the older woman, just a Tsubaki did with her. The reunion between her and her brother was a massive bonus, the protectiveness he had towards he obviously made her feel very safe.

Soul's friends were pretty amazing, he thought. He introduced her to Kid and his friends, Liz and Patty. He'd explained the situation in private and they were very supportive, Liz's girly habits and Patty's childishness had a fantastic influence on Maka, making her feel more her age and not double it.

Soul smiled somewhat fondly as he watched her enter back into the room from the corner of his eye as he sat on the couch, she seemed to notice for she'd stopped in her tracks, casting him an odd look.

"What?" her suspicion was clear in her voice due to the way she drawled the words out, Soul chuckled before standing, placing his now empty mug in the sink.

"Nothing, nothing."

"…Hmph." Maka hummed in response, making her way over to the couch to flop down onto it, closing her eyes as she hugged a cushion.

"Seriously?" Soul asked, standing over her. Maka opened one eye questioningly, groaning in question. "You dragged me out of bed to watch me eat the breakfast you cooked at 10 in the morning, just to go back to sleep? I could have got another hour in there, easy."

Maka just laughed tiredly before plopping her head back down. "Not my fault you're a weirdo when it comes to eating breakfast." She grumbled tiredly before dropping her head down. She was out like a light the moment her head hit the pillow, making Soul chuckle fondly again, shaking his head.

He couldn't wipe the smile from his face as he went into her and Tsubaki's room, pulling the cover from their bed and making his way back to where Maka had passed out. He laughed lightly again as he draped the cover over her, then sitting down by her feet, turning the television down.

In this time, Maka's legs ended up draped over Soul's lap as his head hung over the back of the couch, his eyes drooping closed as he fought sleep. Tsubaki and Blackstar entered to find them both passed out in this rather intimate position. Tsubaki giggled as she shushed Blackstar's hushed rants about Soul making a move on his sister, though she knew he approved since he thought enough to lower his voice. She led Blackstar from the building as they decided to return later, both eyeing the building as they walked away, smiles creeping on their faces.

Maka and Soul woke up a good 3 hours later, feeling well rested and awake. Soul poked Maka's knee to wake her up, chucking gruffly as she sat up abruptly, blinking in confusion.

"You awake now?" he teased, making her hit as him arm weakly, grinning.

"Shut it. What time is it?"

Soul hummed as he turned to eye the clock that hung at a drunken angle above the kitchens door, before turning to Maka.

"It's only one. But we've been out for three hours." He yawned, stretching his arms behind his head. "It's good though," he said mid-yawn, dropping his arms as he finished his sentence. "I actually feel somewhat alive now."

"Shouldn't Blackstar and Tsubaki be back by now?"

Soul shrugged and Maka sighed.

"You're useless," she breathed as she stood up, making her way for the bathroom.

"But you love me anyway, sweetheart." Soul called in a patronising voice.

"Stop calling me that, it's not funny." Maka yelled back from the bathroom in the same tone, earning a rumble of laughter from him.

Maka allowed a small smile as she looked at herself in the mirror at Soul's laughter. She's grew to like it. His laughter wasn't forced or exaggerated. It was so genuine, which made it contagious. She wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes, hanging her head back as she smiled. She felt… somewhat happy. Her eyes darkened as she thought about the reasons that put her here, and cringed as she knew some of these she would have to face some again very soon.

Maka didn't have to deal with her parents, she'd moved into her own apartment after the divorce due to councillor's advice. She's missed the final week of school before half term, the week that led up to her attempted suicide. She had an entire week before school started again, and if she wanted to do well she couldn't miss anymore. She sighed in dreaded anticipation, her stomach clenching as she glared into the mirror, her expression totally different than the one she entered the bathroom with.


	6. Drive

Maka remained in the bathroom with her thoughts, it was only till she was in there for half an hour did Soul finally get worried enough to knock on the door. Maka jumped a foot in the air as he did, but relaxed as his voice sounded from behind the door.

"Maka?" he asked in a guarded voice, his knuckle still resting on the wood of the door.

He received no reply, he was about to knock again when he heard the lock turn in the door before it opened slowly, revealing Maka.

"Hey, sorry I was just washing up." she lied, flashing him a flawless fake smile which made a genuine one spread over his own face. Maka felt a small pang of disappointment that he didn't see through her, but pushed the feeling away as she stepped through the door. Soul had gotten dressed in her absence, now wearing a pair of faded jeans and a plain t-shirt along with his signature leather jacket. His white hair was as gravity-defying as ever but much more tamed, his crimson eyes bored into hers.

"Alright," he said. "Anyway, I was wondering about what you were going to do about school."

Maka froze. She just got her mind off it and then he brings up the source of her depression? Jeez, only Soul.

"Ah, well I guess I'll just have to move back home," she admitted, not allowing her sadness to seep into her voice. "I can't afford the bus everyday and I'm not taking your money. Or Tsubaki's. Or Blackstar's." she shrugged, wrapping her arms around herself. Soul knew her well enough to understand that when she did that she was stressed. Little did he know it also meant she was feeling a little more than depressed.

"I don't think so," he countered, turning away and heading back into the living room. Maka followed with a confused frown.

"And what do you mean by that?" She drawled, her brows raised slightly as she started to walk away, making her way for her and Tsubaki's bedroom. Soul remained where he was as she did so but called after her.

"What I mean is I don't feel comfortable with you our of my- Our sight. You're not fixed yet, Maka. No matter how much you want to be."

Maka bit back all the harsh replies she could have easily thrown back at him, but Soul seemed to be so much more wittier than her, as much as she hated to admit it. She shook her head as she pulled on a pair of leggings, followed by her favourite boots. She threw her baggy shirt over her head and pulled on a dark red spaghetti strapped top before releasing her hair from it's restraints. The ash blonde locks cascaded gracefully down her back and hung loosely just past her hips. She checked her appearance in the mirror and avoided her emerald eyes that used to be so happy but now now longer reflected any emotion. They were just blank. She squeezed her eyes shut before making her way back to the door, swinging it open to make her way back to Soul who remained in her previous position. He had crossed his arms over his broad chest and leaned on the bathrooms door frame, his brows raised as he awaited her response. She scowled and looked away.

"Then what do you suggest I do, Soul? I can't miss school and I can't walk to the other side of town everyday!"

"I could drive you." Soul said in a slightly bored voice before she could come up with any more excuses. Maka arched a delicate eyebrow, leaning away from him slightly.

"You have a car?" she asked, wishing she hadn't as Soul looked away from her and rubbed his neck awkwardly, at loss for words.

"Well," he drawled. "I don't have a car per say, but I do have a different form of transportation."

Maka grew scared as a menacing grin slowly crept onto his face, then she yelled in surprise as he grasped her wrist and dragged her to the door, grabbing her jacket on the way out.

Maka stared at the bright orange monstrosity before her, her eyes as wide as Soul had ever seen them and he unsuccessfully fought a chuckle thus making Maka cast her wide eyes to him.

"You have a motorbike?" she screeched, making Soul chuckle again, raising amused brows as he looked down at her. "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"Well, they're not really a topic of conversation with girls like yourself," he told her as he leaned on his bike, pulling a helmet out and holding it out for her. She stared at it blankly before looking up at Soul.

"Why are you pointing that thing at me?"

"Would you rather you went off helmet-less?"

"Well, what are you going to wear?"

"I don't need it, helmet hair isn't cool."

"Soul, do you understand how dangerous these things are?"

"No, because they're not."

"Yes, they are."

"Maka, stop being immature."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

They glared at each other before Soul stood up straight and glowered down at Maka. Maka, being very used to Soul's glare, simply hung her neck back and met his eyes, crossing her arms over her chest as she rose a brow.

"...Get on the bike, Maka,"

"No."

"Maka..."

"Mhm?"

"I'm not going to ask again."

"Good, because I'm not answering again."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like... Like I just ran over you cat or something."

"Then get on the god damn bike."

Maka growled in frustration before snatching the helmet from Soul, earning another rumble of laughter from him. She ignored the feeling the sound gave her, masking it with her annoyance before standing beside the bike at loss.

"Well, what do I do?" she asked, definitely out of her comfort-zone.

Soul just ignored her and got on the the bike, kicking the stand from the floor so the bike was balanced by his legs. He then turned to grin at the girl stood beside him as she fastened the helmet clumsily on her head. When she looked up he patted the seat beside him, in turn making her recoil abruptly.

"Would you rather you sat on the front?" he asked innocently, scooting back. Maka glared before pushing him back forward, straddling the bike and holding her hands out for balance.

"Where do I put my arms?" she asked reluctantly, half dreading, half anticipating the answer.

"Around me." he answered simply.

"...Do I get a say in this matter?"

"Okay, fine." Half a second after saying this, the engine roared the life. The sound sent absolute terror through Maka, who screeched and clutched Soul, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face in his back making him roar with laughter. She felt his back shaking as he laughed, shaking his head as a flood of curses left Maka's normally innocent mouth.

"Okay, okay I get it! Stop messing around." she snapped loudly, making Soul lean away from her though he still chuckled in amusement as he heard her voice waver with fear as she spoke.

"Alright, alright!" he laughed. "Okay, how about you tell me where your school is? I want to know how to get there for when the term starts, can't risk getting lost on your first day, right?"

Maka just grumbled in response, muttering out the directions as Soul sped away. What if they ran into someone from her school? She'd rather be caught dead then on the back of an attractive senior's motorbike. They arrived at the school in about 15 minutes, due to Soul's reckless driving. Soul eyed her school with obvious distaste, the run down building just screamed bad news, as did the group of hooded kids who stood in the area.

"...Nice neighbourhood." he commented, climbing off the bike.

"Yeah, yeah." Maka muttered, stumbling from the bike. Soul grabbed her arm before she fell, then dropped it as if he'd been electrocuted. They turned their faces away from each other awkwardly, looking anywhere but at each other.

There was a long moment of silence before Soul finally spoke.

"Okay, so I know the way, wanna go?" Soul said in a rush, already climbing back onto the bike.

"Yup," Maka agreed quickly, jumping onto the back of the bike about to wrap her arms around Soul when a confused voice slurred from beside them.

"Maka?"

The voice made Maka's blood run cold. She turned her head slowly to see the man she'd avoided for the past three years. The man she tried to hate but couldn't help but love and miss. How could she hate her own father?

Spirit's dirty red hair hung over his ice-blue eyes which were currently narrowed in confusion. They remained like that before his face morphed into a very different expression. One of which Maka was all to familiar with. Anger. His lips curls up in a sneer as he dropped the bottle in his hand, no doubt alcohol, and unwrapped his arm from the random woman's waist whom was at his side before striding his way toward the bike, his furious eyes planted on Maka.

Soul eyed the scene in concern and confusion, his eyes widened when the man made his way towards them threateningly, his scarred hands clutching into fists and shook. He was raising one up, aiming it at the girl on the back of his bike when Maka whispered a single word in his ear, one word so full of fear it made Soul's chest tighten as she tightened her arms around his waist.

"Drive."

And he did.


	7. Secrets

Soul slammed the door angrily behind him. The entire journey home Maka didn't say one word, even when he begged her to. Going up the stairs to their apartment she remained silent and it looked like she was planning on staying this way for the rest of the night.

"What, so you're not going to talk?" Soul asked in disbelief, throwing his jacket roughly onto the couch. "You was literally a hair's length away from getting assaulted by some old man, who knew your name, and you're not going to say anything?"

Maka stood with her back to Soul, hanging her jacket up with un-humanly slowness before turning around to finally face him. Her eyes, her emerald eyes, so bright they could almost resemble a cats made Soul's own eyes widen. Just then, her eyes looked very old. And very, very sad.

"…I don't want to talk about it." Her voice was quiet and tired, reflecting her expression perfectly.

Soul, normally so persistent, let his shoulders drop in defeat. He couldn't fight with her on this, especially when she was looking like this. He sighed before placing a hand on her shoulder, bowing his head to glare at the floor.

"You should probably lie down," he told her softly, as if speaking to a child. It was patronising… but comforting. "Come on."

He led her to the couch which she almost immediately collapsed on. He sighed at her somewhat still form before sitting down beside her feet. She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling.

"Hey, maybe you should go to slee-"

"I'm not tired."

Soul looked away in annoyance, not wanting to snap at her. He stood slowly and made his way to the balcony, where he then pulled out his phone. He dialed in Blackstar's number before pressing the phone to his ear.

"Hey, man."

"Star," Soul breathed in relief.

"Yeah, is something wrong?"

"I don't know, you tell me. Maka took me to her school today, because I need to know how to get there for when she starts again." Blackstar hummed in understanding. "Anyway, some man more or less attempted assault on Maka. I don't know who he was but he knew her name and he was definitely about to throw a punch before she told me to drive away."

"Shit, are you serious? What was that all about?" Blackstar exclaimed, his voice raising in volume.

"I don't know! She won't say a thing and I can't bring myself to push her on it!"

"Well, we're just going to have to wait till she feels comfortable enough to tell one of us about it. If she doesn't want to tell us then she won't. But damn, seriously? She has to go to school there, Soul. Everyday."

"You think I don't know that?" Soul hissed into the phone, frustrated. "It's just going to get worse! Hell, I worry enough when she's in the fucking apartment! Soon I'll be driving her to that goddamn school every day! An-"

"Soul, Soul! Calm down man, you're losing it." Blackstar warned, a stern edge to his voice. Soul took a deep breathe before exhaling through his nose, sighing heavily.

"Your sister causes me a lot of goddamn stress, Star. Must run in the family."

"Jeez, you're telling me? I had to live with that for 12 years! I have yet to learn what peace at mind really is."

Soul chuckled before sighing, asking warily. "Hey, how come you never told us you were adopted?"

Soul could almost feel his shrug over the phone. "You never asked. I didn't think it was too important to bother sharing anyways, what with all the drama before leaving. I thought about Maka a lot though, but I couldn't bring it up because in doing so I'd have to explain. And I guess I just never really felt up to doing that until I didn't really have a choice."

Soul was taken aback. Blackstar was almost as secretive then he was.

"Not like you can talk. I can't name one thing I know about your family."

Soul froze. His shoulders tensed and his grip tightened around the phone so much he almost had to restrain from crushing it in his grasp.

"Yeah, they're not all that interesting," he lied. "Boring really, but gotta love 'um." He said through gritted teeth, almost wishing what he was saying was true.

"Huh," Was all Blackstar responded with. Soul was scared that maybe he picked up on his lie before he went on. "Gotta say, thought it'd be a little more interesting. I'm disappointed."

Soul chuckled in relief. "Yeah, because your ex-family are a ray of sunshine."

"Hey! You may have helped my sister but that gives you no right to disrespect your God!" He yelled. Soul was surprised at the swell in his chest he felt at hearing Blackstar sound like his old self again. He'd been so out of character since Maka had entered back into his life, taking the 'protective-older-brother' role to a whole different level. It was nice to see he was getting back to his old ways, no matter how annoying they were.

"Yeah, yeah. I should get back into Maka, ask what the hell that red-head was about."

He expected Blackstar to laugh, but his old-self was gone in a heart-beat.

"Red-head?" Blackstar asked suddenly, his voice laced with shock. "Soul, what did that man look like?"

"Ugh, I don't know… Red hair, blue eyes, he smelt like booze and was drinking one at the tim-" He was cut off by Blackstar's snarl, his rage more or less seeping through the phone.

"Soul," He growled, Soul had never heard him so furious. "Do you have any idea who that man was?"

"What? No, who?"

"My father."

Soul whipped around to find Maka stood in the doorway of the balcony. She looked like she'd been stood there for a while and had obviously been listening in on Soul's conversation. Slowly, he lowered the phone and pressed the 'End-call' button, turning to fully face Maka.

"What? That old man was your Dad?"

Maka sighed and made her way beside him, resting her arms on the rails of the balcony and stared out at the view ahead.

"Yeah," was all she said, her eyes pained.

"Why would your Dad try and hit you?"

"He's never really hit me before," she reassured him, making him relax his tense stance but he still eyed her through narrowed eyes. "Not recently, anyway. I think it's because I've been gone a while now. Usually I'd at least check in on him or he'd come to my place to scavenge some food or whatever. He's pissed I left without a word."

"But he has hit you before?" Soul asked in a taut voice, all business.

"A whack every now and again when he was really drunk," she said as if it was nothing, she even shrugged. "After Mama finally left, he blamed me. When he was sober he'd spoil me, claiming he loved me and Mama and he'd never hurt us. Only when he was drunk did he tell the truth." She was speaking in the emotionless voice that scared him so much, he almost wanted to change the subject but he'd never, ever got this much out of her.

"Why would he blame you for your Mum leaving?" he asked, genuinely confused. Only more so when Maka squeezed her eyes shut, as if in pain, and started breathing in small, little gasps.

"Whoa, easy there Maka," he murmured soothingly, grasping her shoulders to steady her when she swayed.

She muttered her thanks and looked up to smile at him weakly.

"Come on, let's get something to eat." Soul told her with a smirk, making her grin. He lead her back inside, thinking that one day he'd make her comfortable enough with him to trust him with the truth.


	8. The Truth

Lend me your hand and I wont let you fall;  
Lend me your strength and we'll conquer them all.  
Lend me your spirit and I shall no longer seethe;  
For now my tired lungs can finally breathe.

Maka and Soul were both lounging lazily on the spacious L-shaped couch. It has been a week since the incident with Maka's Dad. Soul had convinced Maka to spend a lazy day with him since it was a Sunday and the last day off till Maka had to return to school. They both slumped on the couch, staring intently at the television, laughing in unison at the sad excuse for a horror movie.

"What the fuck is she doing?"

"Ugh, seriously! This is why blondes are stereo-typed the way we are."

"You got that ri- Ah, finally she's dead."

"Was only a matter of time."

They laughed before Maka stood, grabbing their empty cups and asking Soul if he wanted a refill.

"Sure, go on then." he replied, standing to pick out another movie.

When Maka returned with two steaming cups Soul had already started the umpteenth movie of the day, remote in hand. She placed them down before turning her back to pull her jumper off. Little did she know, her top pulled up with her jumper, giving Soul as small view of her back. Soul's eyes narrowed as her saw something purple smeared on his friend's back, he assumed it continued as it seemed to go on behind the fabric before the top dropped back down.

"Maka, you have something on your back." He told her when she sat down, his voice laced with confusion. How on earth did she manage to get something on her back? He only grew more confused as she instantly stiffened. Maka almost groaned as she realised he must of saw a portion of her back. How could she be so careless?

"Guess I had to tell you sooner or later," she muttered, pulling the remote from Soul and muting the TV.

"Tell me what?" He asked, his voice slightly suspicious. Maka rolled her eyes.

"I'm only telling you this in case you ever see my back. I don't want to freak you out."

"You're freaking me out now." He said in a strained voice, Maka just rolled her eyes again.

"You know, you never asked me about my Dad." she said suddenly, making Soul more intrigued in where this conversation was going. He'd been curious the past week on what had happened with her Dad, he was curious the weeks before on the deal with her family. He'd known her a while now and she had yet to tell him anything herself.

"Yeah, well I figured you'd tell me when you were ready," he shrugged to hide his interest.

"Well, I'm ready." She said simply, shrugging back.

Soul hesitated as this was obviously a delicate subject. He eyed Maka warily before he turned to face her so he was looking at her properly, his expression cautious yet concerned.

"The day we saw your Dad, I saw your face," he began in a guarded voice, his eyes watching Maka closely to see what impact his words had on her. He shook his head slightly before continuing. "I don't think I've ever seen so much fear in a person's eyes. The look on your face haunts me it was that scared, Maka." He shuddered, his eyes narrowed as she winced then closed her eyes.

"Maka, what happened?" he finally asked.

"I love my Papa, Soul," a nice statement, but she couldn't have said it in a colder voice. "He was everything a good father should be... at first. I grew up with Blackstar of course, but my parents never treated him like he wasn't their own child, they loved us both equally. We were the perfect family. Then my Mama got a new job and began working stupid hours, gone by 7 in the morning, coming home in the middle of the day to visit before disappearing all night. She'd be gone when we woke up and gone by the time we went to bed. It wasn't bad, that wasn't the problem. It's just my Papa saw this as an opportunity."

Maka's eyes narrowed into slits as she glared at the hardwood floor beneath their feet, her arms subconsciously wrapping around herself, making Soul cringe.

"He cheated on her, more times than I can count. I guess the guilt of seeing my Mama have no idea got to him, but he didn't stop. No, he began to drink. This made him careless and so I caught him for the first time when I was 6. I told him I'd tell Maka and he begged me not too. I-I turned a blind eye." She shuddered with guilt. "I shouldn't have, but I did. Blackstar knew what was happening too so he began to spend more time with his friends, he was hardly ever home. I'd have done the same if I'd had any." She shrugged, her eyes glazed over with memories.

"My Mama went away for 2 weeks for some meetings, leaving me and Blackstar in the care of him. You can guess how that went, it was every single night. Blackstar more or less moved out but I had no where to go..." she trailed off. Soul could tell by how her voice dropped an octave, the bad part was coming. He held his breathe, reaching out to hold the hand of the girl before him.

"His whores would hit me, and he would be so out of it he couldn't stop it. He wouldn't stop it." She inhaled sharply. "Anyhow, that's how Mama eventually found out and divorced my Dad. My Mama left to travel and I moved out and they sent Blackstar away." her expression and voice returned to normal, she smiled at him. "And that's what happened" Soul was about to reply when he stopped short.

"But Maka, what does this have to do with your back?" He asked reluctantly, almost not wanting to know.

Maka froze again, she got up slowly and faced him, her face almost... apologetic?

"Maka...?" He asked, tilting his head in confusion. Maka sighed loudly and hung her head back to glare at the ceiling.

"When I was 12 my Papa brought how a particularly cruel woman," She said scornfully. In all that she had explained so far, she had never sounded so disgusted. But there was a dark, distant look in her once bright emerald eyes. "My Dad had left the apartment to get more girls and booze, but he just didn't come back that night. He left the woman in the apartment to wait and she didn't leave even when it was obvious my Dad wasn't coming back. She found me in my room..."

"She didn't want to just beat me." She whispered, her voice breaking at the end, her voice sounded so sad that moment it just about broke Soul's heart.

Soul gulped audibly, sitting up in his seat to eye his friend, his voice dropping a couple octaves as he asked: "What did she do to you, Maka?" he asked quietly.

Maka didn't reply. He was confused when she turned her back to him, lifting up her top to fully expose her back. Right then, Sou's world stopped spinning. Everything paused. He didn't know sound horrendous, horrific people existed in this world. He only realised monsters really did exist when he saw the state of Maka Albarn's back.

Someone had played Tic-Tac-Toe there.

This time he couldn't suppress his absolute gasp of horror. He jumped to his feet and stumbled a few steps back till his back pressed against the wall, but he couldn't peel his eyes from the state of Maka's back. The board of the game was sliced thickly into the skin of her back, all the lines even and precise and had turned a shiny purple colour. The X's of the game were as well cut into her back and three were scattered on the board. To his horror, the 0's were actually branded into her skin. Three of them excruciating burns ran diagonally down the board. A long line was sliced through the three burns, signifying that they had won.

Soul's vision turned from red to a slight grew until it finally returned somewhat normal. The pain that 12 year old Maka must have dealt with going through that must have been unbearable. That must have been absolutely horrific to endure and for a 12 year old to do so was unimaginable. Poor Maka, he thought, squeezing his eyes shit and pressing his hand over his mouth. How could someone do this to her of all people? He'd yet to meet a more pure, more genuinely nice person in his life. How could someone do this to her? He didn't notice he was crying until a tear ran down his cheek down the back of his hand.

It was then Maka turned around to face Soul. She paused a second, seeing him cry, before taking three long strides towards him and pulling him into a hug. He wrapped his arms around her waist, burying his face in the crook of her neck when he released his first sob.

Maka started crying then.

They stood like that for a while, Soul blubbering out how sorry he was and Maka soothing him, stroking his hair. She needed this. She'd never, ever told someone of this and she never imagined doing so would leave drop such a weight from her shoulders. When they stumbled back to the couch she continued to talk, her legs resting on Soul's lap and he listened to every word, every syllable. She sighed with content when they sat in that comfortable silence, her head laid back on the arm rest as Soul snored softly. She smiled happily before letting her own eyes droop shut, lapsing into a dreamless sleep. Exactly the way she liked it.


	9. Reveal

Maka buried her face in Soul's back as he took her to school. He'd been reluctant to take her, feeling more protective of her after what she had told him last night but she'd convinced him. She scowled into his back. She didn't want him knowing this to change anything. If anything this should make him less protective since she'd endured such a thing a survived. Well, up into she ended up on the cliff. But still, she did well.

Mainly she disliked the feeling his new found protectiveness gave her. Hell, it only began a few hours ago but it was enough to have an effect on her. He offered to cook in the morning, and he now spoke to her in a softer, kinder voice. He teased her less. It was weird. Even when they were getting on his back, he helped her on it with a gentleman like kindness she wasn't used to. It made tingles run up her spine and cause her to shiver.

As they pulled up to the school, all eyes landed on them, all curious as to who was on the back of the unbelievable attractive seniors motor bike. Maka understood their shock when she took the helmet off and it was her. Who would've thought? She was different from when she was last there, though. Before she hid her face and hair beneath a hood, she'd even wear baggy joggers to add to her outfit in attempt to draw as little attention to her as she could but it only made her stand out more. Now, thanks to Liz and Patti, she sported some cute, faded skinny jeans that hugged her legs and her favourite boots that stopped mid-shin. She wore a spaghetti strapped, blood red top and a feminine leather jacket Soul had suggested since it looked 'cool'. Her hair was left loose and hung just past her hips and her face was out in the open, making her want her hood back.

Soul helped her off the bike, very gentleman like once again but Maka ignored her confusion, stepping behind him as all eyes turned on her. He glared at those who looked at them, making them look away automatically.

"It's alright, Maka," he whispered looking down at her feet, his brows furrowed in the obvious discomfort of leaving her here. "You're different, now. You're stronger than when they bullied you. Don't see how they got away with it anyway, I get a book to the head for some measly banter."

Maka coughed a laugh, leaning into him wearily. He sighed before wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder, shaking her a bit. "You'll be fine. You can actually hit these kids with book, they didn't have the time I did to learn how to skillfully dodge flying objects."

Maka laughed a real laugh, looking up at him gratefully before inhaling a huge breathe, eyeing the building with new determination. "Mkay, you're right," she said in a hard voice, now glaring at the eyes that landed on her. "I can take these losers easy."

Soul chuckled and squeezed her shoulder, stepping away towards his bike. "Alright, well I'll pick you up so-" He stopped mid-sentence as a girl who walked past Maka intentionally made her shoulder collide with hers. He grabbed Maka's forearm as she stumbled, looking after the girls that did it.

She stopped to stand in a group that was currently ogling him. The girl stopped to join in, all sighing in unison. They looked like bullies, Soul thought as his brows narrowed. The girl had a mischievous look in her eye as they waited for some kind of reaction, like he was going to come running to them any minute just because she walked right into Maka.

They thought that'd impress him.

Soul smirked, knowing exactly how to deal with this and help Maka out somewhat before she was on her own. His grip was still on her forearm so he pulled her to him, wrapping an arm around her waist and pressing her to him, smirking down at her. Maka gasped and pushed at him immediately.

"S-Soul!" she hissed, pushing at him. Soul chuckled and lowered his head so he could whisper in her ear.

"Just go with it," he muttered, a mischievous tone to his voice that made Maka's brow arch up. "Them girls," he began, Maka knew already who he was referring too. "If you look like you're with me, that'll scare them off, and it will make guys leave you alone, since you're protected. Hitting two birds with one stone."

Maka grinned just as playfully, her fists flattening to palms on his chest as she tilted her head up as she looked at him, smirking just as cockily.

They both grinned and suppressed laugh, this being a game to them. Soul could literally feel the disappointment rolling off the other girls in waves. He saw boys eyeing Maka and tightened his hold on her, confused at the fury he felt when they did. Maka was experiencing the same confusion as girls fluttered their eyelashes at Soul causing her to feel a swell of jealousy in her stomach. What on earth was that?

"I'll be waiting here after school," he said huskily, but loud enough for those around to hear. Maka suppressed a laugh as she fluttered her own eyelashes at him, unaware about the effect it was having on him.

"Okay," she said, somewhat sadly. Soul couldn't stifle his chuckle of amusement and took advantage of the part he was playing. He dipped his head and pressed his lips to her cheek, feeling Maka giggle against his lips at the gasps around them, he chuckled.

"Don't miss me too much," he pulled away and took her hand with him, kissing her knuckle before winking at her, causing the breathe to hitch in her throat. He got on his bike without his helmet and drove off, as reckless as ever.

Maka turned on her heels gracefully, making her way towards the building with a new found confidence. No one called to her, no one shouted their regular names and insults. No, they made a path for her. She bowed her head and smirked as she walked, laughing lightly under her breathe as she did.

Soul was where he was before, just like he promised. The word about the hot guy coming to pick someone up must have gotten around for there was a crowd of girls around him. Maka made her way through the crowd before reaching the opening, grinning as Soul was already in character. She could see the laugh being held back in his throat, he found this nonsense as funny as she.

He sauntered towards her lazily, his hands in his pockets before stopping in front of her and looking down to her. He wrapped his arm back around her waist and kissed her cheek once again, laughing lightly in her ear.

"So, how was school?" he asked in a patronising voice as he led her to his bike, his arm wrapped securely around her waist. Maka scoffed and laughed at his tone, making him join in.

"It was... fine." She admitted, looking up to grin at him. He returned it cheekily, grinning down back at her.

"Knew this would scare them off, was the perfect plan."

"You did okay," she shook her head as he helped her onto his bike, passing her the helmet.

"Tsubaki told me to tell you she won't be home today," he said as he got on the bike, kicking the stand up off the ground. "She's staying at Blackstar's again."

"Jeez, she may as well live there," Maka muttered, wrapping her arms around his waist as he took off.

"Yeah, well it used to be Blackstar living at out place, more or less. When you moved in they started going to his place."

"Why?" Maka asked. Soul scoffed and laughed gruffly.

"Why'd you think, Maka?"

Maka just growled and stayed silent as they got closer to his place. She thanked the warmth the apartment building gave and sighed happily, warming her cold hands.


	10. The Plan

Soul threw his coat on the coat hanger beside the front door before making his way over to the couch, slumping lazily in it. He sighed as all the tension seeped from his body as she heard Maka's light footsteps make their way to the bathroom, no doubt to clean up after school. He spent the entire day pacing the house, keys in hand. How could he help but worry? After learning all that she'd be through other than at her home, but at school as well? Blackstar told him how them damned bullies would taunt her, even physically hurt her. Blackstar had once reluctantly revealed that one of the physical torments they would use on Maka was actually putting out their cigarettes on her skin. Soul grimaced and gritted his teeth, closing his eyes.

"What's wrong with you?"

He opened his eyes to see Maka standing before him. She always moved with cat-like grace, he couldn't hear her footsteps unless he strained to hear them, guess he was too deep in thought to notice.

He cleared his throat hoarsely before sitting up straight. "Nothing. Isn't it your turn to cook?"

Maka shot him a dark look before making her way around the couch and to the kitchen. Soul couldn't help but release a small sigh of relief as she made her way from the room.

"Close call…" he muttered as he rubbed the back of his white hair, which was in slightly disarray from the wind as they rode home.

He leaned back onto the couch, resting the back of his neck on the head rest and closing his crimson eyes, finally relaxed…

Knock, knock, knock…

Soul groaned and pulled himself off the couch as Kid knocked relentlessly on his poor door. He knew it was Kid for he was the only person he knew who had to knock on a door eight times unless he'll have a fucking break down.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming Kid," he groaned as he unlocked to door to pull it open, meeting golden eyes with his own bored ones.

"Hello, Soul." Kid said politely, lowering the hand used to attack Soul's door.

"Hey, Kid." Soul opened the door fully to let the man in before making his way back to the couch. Kid usually visited on Monday's so he wasn't all that surprised. Usually Blackstar would be here along with Tsubaki, as well at the two sisters Kid usually brought along with him.

"Where are the girls?" he asked as he slumped back onto the couch, he missed Kid's mouth pull down into a tight frown.

"Well, that's the thing I wanted to talk to you about…" he began, uncharacteristically reluctant as he stood other side of the couch.

"…What?" Soul asked in slight annoyance at his friend's tense stance. Didn't he get enough of this serious shit from Maka?

"Don't get mad," Kid warned, sighing as Soul's face only turned harder. "I may or may not have asked the girls to… dig a little into Maka's past."

"…What?!" Soul growled, making a move to stand. Kid raised his hands, palm up and gestured for him to remain seated.

"For good reason!" He defended himself, but the fright in his voice made him sound feeble. "Maka's our friend now and doesn't deserve what she got. I wanted to help."

"And so you invaded her privacy?!" Soul countered, sending a sharp glance to the closed kitchen door and sighed with relief. Maka wouldn't hear so long as the kept this of a reasonable volume.

"Ugh, no!" Kid said, making a face. "Tsubaki mentioned about the situation with Maka's father to the girls, as she heard it from Blackstar. Tsubaki was worried and passed this worry to Liz and Patti. I just want to ease everyone's mind."

"And how, do tell, do you hope to do that?" Soul asked sarcastically, standing up and burying his hands in his pockets.

Kid met his eyes with a harsh glare, obviously not thankful of the negative humour. "Maka's father sounds like a bad egg, but worse than a simple over use of alcohol and child abuse that he could no doubt get away with given his position at work."

Soul narrowed his eyes. "You think he could go down for worse. What can be worse then what he's already down?"

Kid's lips pulled into a hard line before he responded. "I don't know. It's a theory."

Soul hung back his head. "Kid," he groaned in frustration.

"Look, at least I'm looking! The reason the girls aren't here is because I've got them digging up information on Maka's father's doings out of work. Alcohol and prostitutes aren't as cheap as he makes them seem and his jobs pay isn't that good. He must have another way into money. Big money."

"Does he now?"

It wasn't Soul's voice. The two men both whipped around to find Maka stood in the doorway of the kitchen, her brow raised and arms crossed. She pursed her lips when none responded.

"Well, that's news to me. Want to elaborate, Kid?"

Kid and Soul explained Kid's theory and watched as Maka's expression turned from cocky, to confused to devious. She tilted her head and leaned back into the couch, raising her brows.

"If my Dad's doing something illegal to an extent that he won't flaunt it other people's faces then it must be bad. You really think you could take him down?"

Kid nodded sharply. "I do. I can use some of my father's rights to gain the information I need, so long as my theories are correct."

Maka nodded slowly and turned to eye Soul. Though her expression revealed she obviously like this idea Soul could see the fear behind her eyes. She was scared.

Soul closed the door lightly as Kid made his way out. When he re-entered the room Maka was in the same position, although now she stared blankly at the ground.

"I-I-" she cleared her throat. "We're going to send my Dad to prison?"

Soul hesitated but didn't deny it. He nodded slowly.

"Soul, I-" she shook her head. "I don't think I could do it."

With that, Soul realised he was wrong before. It wasn't fear he saw in her eyes before.

It was guilt.

Soul crossed over the room to kneel in front of her position sat on the couch, taking her small face in his hands.

"Why would you feel any guilt towards that man?" he asked in a strained, yet quiet voice.

"You wouldn't understa-"

"Try me."

She shook her head, spraying tears. "He's my Dad, Soul." She said in a voice so fierce yet so small it made Soul's chest clench. "I can hate him and fear him, but I can't not love him at the same time! I can't not defend him or miss him. I just-jus"

Soul made a heartbroken sound and pulled Maka into his arms and onto the floor with him. They stayed on the floor in front of the perfectly good couch for a while, Maka in Soul's lap as she sobbed on his shoulder.

Soul stroked her long hair as he pondered what she said and came to his conclusion. She could miss him, he thought. She could love him even, but if Soul gets the chance, he'll send that bastard behind bars to rot for the rest of his days, even if Maka begs him not to.

He buried his face in her hair and he fought a tear of his own.

Even if it makes her hate me.


	11. On This Day

Soul frowned to himself as he made his way back into his apartment and shook off the cold. It was Friday, finally, and he'd just dropped Maka off at school. He pulled off his gloves with numb hands before dropping them carelessly on the table that sat beside the front door. He didn't bother to take his shoes off as he made his way to his bedroom, but paused at the door.

His frown lessened as his gaze rested on the door beside Tsubaki's and Maka. Soul assumed Tsubaki had told Maka not to go in there since she never did, and he knew how curious she was. He stared blankly at the floor as he fished his keys from his pocket and fiddled through them to find one rusty, neglected key.

Hesitantly, he made his way toward the door that he only ever really approached on this day, every year. This was just his apartment before Tsubaki had moved in and he made it very clear that no one but him was to ever enter that room. He assumed she was confused for she never saw him enter. He wouldn't dare go in if someone else was in the apartment to witness it.

He pushed the key in the lock and flinched as he heard the lock click, indicating the door was open. The keys dropped to the ground and he rested his hand on the doorknob, but had yet to open the door. Finally, he reluctantly turned the knob and pushed the door open.

The room was dusty and freezing. Soul coughed slightly as he made his way into the room, shutting the door behind him. Cobwebs formed in the corners of the ceiling and a thick layer of dust was visible on the window sill.

A thick layer of dust had also collected on the top of the glorious grand piano.

Soul chuckled sadly as he imagined his parents reaction if they had saw what condition he let their gift to him get into. He shrugged as he chased the thought away. He didn't want to think about his parents right now.

He nodded to himself as he noticed he had closed the lid during his last visit. He didn't want any of the dust or insects to make their way inside the piano, no matter how much he despised the instrument. Gently, he ran his forefinger over the lid that covered the keys, wiping away some of the dust to expose its original black shiny surface.

With more confidence, his lifted the lid slowly to expose the black and white keys, and he couldn't suppress his smirk.

"Hello you beautiful bastard," Soul muttered fondly, yet his voice was strained.

He didn't bother to wipe the piano seat clean of the dust, because he simply didn't care. He spread his talented fingers over the keys, feeling more at ease as he did so. Swallowing thickly, he finally pressed down on the keys gently, sighing at the sound that came.

Soul played for hours, he played till sweat collected on his forehead and his fingers ached. His compositions were different than usual. Like always, he recorded the music he produced on the music scores that he kept in the music seat. His older compositions from previous visits on this day were collected in there also and he even compared the scores he produced just then to the ones he made so long ago. The reason his parents didn't try to stop him to leave, didn't shed a tear when he announced he wouldn't visit or that he even hated them, the reason was he wasn't good enough was for the music he so long ago produced.

His previous music was dark, sad and menacing. Yet the music he had composed today was less harsh. It was softer and kinder to the ears that heard them. He rose a brow as he came to the theory that maybe his compositions were influenced by his moods. Guess he just wasn't feeling… happy until now. He frowned as he closed the lid of the seat and sat back down in front of the now closed lid of the piano. Why would anything be different now? He was the same old bitter Soul who disliked human interaction except with a small handful of people. He lied to his friends every time they asked of his past and didn't give it a second thought. He was deceitful, secretive and unkind. Nothing had changed.

He assessed the last composition closely, squinting at the pattern in the chords he didn't recognise. They almost portrayed love. But that didn't make sense, his music reflected himself; that would mean…

Soul jumped from the seat, knocking the seat over and spilling music everywhere. He pressed a hand over his mouth as he stared in awe and the composition rested on the music stand of the piano. He ran his hand over his face and blinked, his blood pumping audibly in his ears.

No… I can't be…

"Soul?"

Soul whipped his head around sharply and stifled a groan. Tsubaki was home. He bent down to collect the music he's spilled as he called out to her.

"Yeah Tsu I'm in here, I'll be out in a sec,"

The surprise was clear in her voice. "Oh- You're in there? Wow, I-"

Soul chuckled as he made his way from the room and picked up his keys, locking the door behind him to meet Tsubaki's eyes. He laughed at his expression.

"Yeah, I usually go in there on this day. Usually I'd wait till I was alone, so…"

"Oh," Tsubaki responded in understanding. "That's why I never see you go in there!"

Soul laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah…"

"So, you only go in on this day? So like… Once every year?"

Soul's lips pulled into a tight line, he looked away from her. "Yeah, only on this day."

Tsubaki seemed to finally pick up on his distress and held her hands up, her eyes mortified. "Oh my- I didn't mean to pry, Soul, I'm sorry! I jus-"

"Whoa, whoa, Tsu!" Soul laughed, though he did feel more at ease. "It's fine, really. I just don't really want to talk about it."

Tsubaki nodded in understand as Soul looked at his watch.

"I should go pick up Maka, I'll see you later kay?"

"Okay, drive safe."

"Always do."

Soul made his way rapidly from the apartment, closing the front door lightly behind him as he left behind a smiling Tsubaki.

Now she could express her surprise, Tsubaki's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as she turned to eye the abandoned door in awe. She'd never heard such beautiful music in her entire life, she was even selfish enough to not announce her arrival until it was finished. She pressed a hand on her throat and breathed in heavily.

"Soul can play the piano?" she breathed in wonder, her indigo eyes resting firmly on the door.


	12. Admitting

I was angry with my friend;  
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.  
I was angry with my foe:  
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I waterd it in fears,  
Night & morning with my tears:  
And I sunned it with smiles,  
And with soft deceitful wiles.  
And it grew both day and night.  
Till it bore an apple bright.  
And my foe beheld it shine,  
And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole,  
When the night had veild the pole;  
In the morning glad I see;  
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

-William Blake

Soul was surprised when Maka finally gathered up the courage to ask about the room she wasn't allowed to enter.

Hell, he'd expected it. Her curiosity was ridiculous and she was one of them people that just had to know everything. It pissed him off but what could he do? Risk getting his in the cranium with a hardback? No thanks.

Ironically, it was the day after he'd went in there on that day. It was Soul's turn to cook and Maka, as usual, was impatient and bounced annoyingly on her heels and she waited in the door frame, whining that she was hungry while Soul scolded her with a roll of his eyes.

"Jeez, what are you five?" he mumbled as he stirred the rice to keep it from burning at the bottom of the pan.

"No, I'm wasting away!" she moaned childishly, drawing a groan from Soul.

"Ugh," he turned the hob and faced Maka, his eyes stern. He pointed at her. "You – Get out. Men only." He gestured to the living room and shooed her away as he turned around, leaving the rice to cool and he pulled out the vegetables.

But Maka didn't leave. As she went to exit the room her eyes unintentionally landed on the neglected door beside her own. Curiosity gnawed in her stomach and the question echoed in her mind. Slowly, she turned slowly on her heels to make her way back into the kitchen to rest her palms on the table that separated herself and Soul.

"Hey…" she began slowly, her voice cautious. Soul, not being used to her careful manner of speaking turned around to face her slowly, his eyes suspicious.

"What?" he drawled, his drooping crimson eyes narrowing into slits as Maka eyed him like a science project.

The words caught in her throat before she asked. Soul rolled his eyes and went to turn his back again when she finally uttered out the question that played in her mind.

"What's in that stupid room?" she blurted, not missing how Soul's shoulders visibly stiffened. She cringed.

"Hmm?" he offered lamely as his hands clenched to fists on the counter top. Yeah, he expected this. He also assumed he'd find a way out of this. But now it was finally happening he was coming up blank.

Maka narrowed her own eyes and circled the table to stand beside him, eyeing him warily.

"I'm… curious." She began, squinting her eyes as she looked at his clenched jaw, his eyes hidden by his bangs as he hung his head. "I thought about how you gave us no… reason. You didn't tell me or Tsu why we couldn't go in that room, all you said was that we couldn't. Then I realised. Soul, I don't know anything about you," she tilted her head up to look at him closer as he winced.

"You know everything about me. My likes, hobbies, dislikes, my past." She shook her head. Soul gritted his teeth. "And yet, I can't name one thing I know about you. It's jus-"

"What do you want me to say, Maka?" he asked suddenly, his voice louder than he intended. He turned to face her, his red eyes ablaze. Maka fell a step back and narrowed her eyes.

"The truth," she replied, frowned when Soul barked a laugh.

"There's nothing to tell. My family were just normal people. They work a lot so I don't hear much from them but we catch up every now and again."

Maka didn't miss the strain in his voice. Her eyes narrowed into slits. "You're lying," she accused.

It was hopeless. She knew him too well. She'd been with him, what, 5 weeks now? 6? And she knew him more than anyone, and he her. How could he expect to keep this from her?

Didn't mean he wouldn't try though.

"I don't want to talk about it." He said in a taut voice.

"Too bad."

"Maka." He warned, but she continued.

"It's not fair, Soul!" she exclaimed, making Soul's eyes grow wide. "My past is far from nice. Far from normal. And yet, I shared everything with you. Everything! And you refuse to tell me as to why I can't go into a certain room? When do you keep anything from me, Soul!? I thought we were closer than that. I thought you trusted me more than that! I thought - I thou-" Soul sighed sadly and grabbed her shoulders, muttering for her to calm down. Maka hung her head and rested her forehead on his chest, her head only resting just below his collar bone due to their height difference. Soul removed his hands from her shoulders to wrap around her waist comfortingly while Maka drawn her hands up to land flatten out on his chest while she took deep, calming breathes.

"I go in that room once a year," he said suddenly, his voice small. Maka tried to turn her head up to look at him but he tucked her head under his chin making that impossible. She turned her head so her ear was pressed against his chest and listened to the irregular hammering of his heart.

"Why once a year?" she asked softly.

"I – I only go in on a certain day. Any other day I don't- I can't bring myself to go in there."

"A certain day?"

Soul sighed and his shoulders slumped in defeat. No turning back now. He pulled away from her to lean on the counter, though he bowed his head to hide his face.

"I've lied about my family to my friends," he admitted. "I claimed they were average. Boring. Normal. But I actually grew up North of the City," Maka's eyes widened. Soul shrugged. "Yeah, my family were pretty well off. Well, very well off. My Mum liked the materials in life and that's most likely why she was with my Dad. My family are made up of famous musicians." Soul scoffed.

"Can't marry someone who isn't musically known and gifted in my family, probably why my Mum and Dad ended up together. And if you had kids, they had to learn an instrument too. My Mum played the harp and my Dad played the flute. When – " Soul's voice broke. Maka frowned in confusion but barely had time to think before he went on.

"When my brother was born," he said in a voice Maka barely recognised. "They made him learn the violin from the day he could hold a bow. He was gifted in every singly way. He was a musical genius." Soul shook his head fondly. Maka smiled.

"What was his name?" she asked. Soul smirked.

"Wes. My Mum and Dad adored him, he was everything they wanted him to be. They thought since they did so great the first time 'round they'd give it another go, two musical geniuses as sons would give them great publicity so I was born when Wes was seven."

"Did you get an instrument too?" Maka asked but almost regretted it as Soul took a sharp intake of breathe.

"Yeah," he breathed. "Piano. But – Unfortunately for my parents, I didn't go as smoothly as Wes. They got lucky with him. My music… It wasn't what they wanted. I could play, read music and the works. But my family's trait was composing. The reason Wes was so great was, with his music, he could make the audience feel exactly what he wanted them to. And my parents wanted him to amaze them, so he did." Soul sighed.

"But I – My music was dark, and… scary I guess. I don't know, I couldn't help it, I couldn't stop it! My parents wanted me to be like Wes, act like Wes but I couldn't. The music it- it reflected my mood. The more they told me to act like Wes the more I knew they didn't want me to be me. That made it worse."

Maka rested a hand on Soul's shoulder and he sighed and drawn a hand up to rest on hers and squeeze it. "I loved Wes. He hated what my parents were doing, neglecting me. I knew they hated me and so did Wes. It hurt Wes more than me 'cause he thought it was all his fault. That was Wes though," Soul smiled a broken smile and squeezed Maka's hand again. "He was just so good. He couldn't stand anyone being sad, let alone being the reason they were, and he felt he was. And I was the person he loved the most. But he didn't get it, it wasn't him it was my parents."

Soul took a long shaky breathe, and wobbled slightly where he stood. Maka's eyes flooded with concern as she placed her other hand on his shoulder, steadying him. He hung his head.

"One night I was arguing with my folks," he said, never hand his voice sound so old. And so very, very sad. "I told them I didn't want to play the piano. I hated the piano. It was the real reason everything was so wrong. It was the reason my parents hated me and my brother pitied me. It went on for a while till my Dad hit me, he would've got another punch in if it weren't for Wes. He pushed my Dad down and dragged me from the house and into his car. I remember," his eyes glazed over as he relived the memory.

"I was 14 so Wes was 21. He was crying as he drove and he held my hand. I remember holding my face, it hurt and that made him cry more. I remember – He was telling me we were going to leave. That we were going to get away from them and live together in our little house. I'd go to a normal school and he's pay the bills with teaching kids how to play the violin." Soul smiled as a tear escaped from the corner of his eyes, but he was quick to wipe it away.

"He always wanted to teach kids, Maka," he chuckled brokenly and Maka laughed lightly as she cried at the same time. "I was so happy. I've never been as happy as I was then. I jumped up in my seat and Wes laughed at me, saying he's never seen me so – me so-" He coughed to hide a sob.

"He lost control of the car due to my excitement." He went on, his voice completely void of any emotion. "We crashed and I woke up in the hospital with my parents faces glaring at me. Streaming with tears. At first I thought they were worried about me but they were angry. Wes had died and they blamed me. Obviously, I had to go back with them and I didn't have Wes to protect me. They tried to change me, to shape me into the man Wes was, saying I had to replace him since I killed him," Soul sneered and squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head.

"I got away at 16 and never looked back. I met Blackstar and then Tsubaki moved in. And it's been like this ever since. But…" his eyes cast to the ground and Maka was almost convinced he hardly knew she was here. She choked on a sob.

"But I go into that room on the day Wes died every year," he said in a hard voice. "I try to – play for him, I guess. He was the only one who ever liked my music and said one day I'd make a composition Mum and Dad couldn't even criticize." Soul smiled and shook his head before looking up at Maka with a sheepish look.

"So a piano." He said. "A piano is what's in that room. And now you know everything, more than anyone else on this planet knows but my parents."

Maka didn't say anything, she just released the tears she'd held and swept Soul into a hug and knew from how his grasped her so desperately that he wasn't keeping it together as well as he pretended. She buried her face in his neck and sobbed, apologies and reassurances flooding from her mouth and Soul stroked her hair and shushed her softy, his tears falling in her hair.

Their roles were reversed as now Maka comforted Soul. She couldn't explain the warmth in her chest that he's told her that heart breaking take that was his past but she'd help him. She'd fix him just like he wanted to fix her.


	13. The Visit

It was a Thursday the day Maka made Soul go to his brother's grave.

After he's admitted everything to her, she didn't let it end just there. As much as he hated to talk about his past he couldn't say no to talk about it with her. She was just so… comforting. She helped. Maka made it easy to talk about and release. But the thing was, the more he talked about it the more Maka could see how much it hurt him. How much it still impacted his everyday life. It was the reason he only had a small hand full of friends even though he was one of the kindest people she'd ever met. It made sense, she later learned he strived to be as kind as his brother once was, he said if there was something to try to be, it was that.

So Maka decided to drop the bomb when they were walking to a nearby shop because Soul was hungry and Maka forgot to shop. They haden't spoke of it today but that didn't stop her.

"Hey Soul," she began and Soul hummed in response. "Where is Wes now?"

"Oh, he was buried the North Side of the city. Like my folks would accept any different. We had a kind of crypt for our family, where all our ancestors and that are buried or remembered. Most just get their name written on the wall but Wes got the absolute privilege to be buried there since he's been taken oh so young," Soul snorted and shook his head. "I remember once when I was 6 my Nan died and she was cremated. I cried because I thought that was why she died, I thought they killed her. Wes had to take me away and calm me down. He explained what it meant and even told me that when he died he'd want to be cremated because he hated the sound of being buried under the ground."

Soul shook his head in annoyance and clenched his fists. "I fought my parents about it but they didn't listen, so he was buried there. I didn't even get to go to the funeral, my folks said I didn't have the right to since it was my fault he died."

He said it so casually but Maka could sense the hurt in his voice. The longing. That's what did it for her. She grabbed his arm and turned them in the opposite direction, looking for the bus stop.

"Where we going?" Soul asked in a bored voice as she dragged him over, he was pretty used to Maka's weird episodes.

"North Side," was all she said and she dragged them onto the bus. Soul's eyes widened as the door shut behind him. He was trapped.

"And why is that?" he asked, his voice wavering with fear. Maka met his gaze sternly.

"We're going to visit your brother."

And so here he was. In a crypt full of his dead family. Maka said she'd wait outside so he could make peace with his past alone. She said he had to do it alone. Now he understood because he did have to be on his own to get through this. He stood in the centre and looked down at the rock before him.

"Hello, brother," he murmured quietly as he read the markings on his grave but none of it went in but his name.

Wesley Evans.

Soul sighed to himself and tilted his head upwards. "Can't believe I'm going to do this," he muttered a bit louder. "But I am. I'm going talk to you even though I know you can't hear me."

He kicked the floor slightly before smirking down at the grave. "I've been doing fine, brother 'cause I know that's what you'd worry about. It was shitty a first but I'm better now. I even think maybe I've found the piece that even Mum and Dad can't criticize." Soul laughed lightly and could almost hear Wes's good natured chuckle in his head.

"Can you believe they left you to rot in here?" he asked as he looked around at the markings all around him. "I told them you'd hate it but did they listen? Course not. Feel sorry for you brother, stuck with the rest of our snobby family for the rest of eternity."

Soul let his eyes cast back to the grave and felt a swell of sadness and guilt, usually he'd push them down but seeing his brothers grave there… Knowing he was right below his feet he couldn't hide his feelings any longer.

"I am so sorry, Wes," he whispered. "I know it was my fault and I know you would say it wasn't but it was. If I'd just calmed down, or just didn't push Dad or just been the kid they wanted." He ran a hand over his face before letting his fingers rest over his mouth as he looked down on the grave.

"They said you being 6 feet under would help us all," he told the grave scornfully. "Something about knowing you were close and being able to take comfort in being able to visit. Yeah, maybe it makes them feel better but they didn't know what you'd have wanted. No one knew you like I did. No one."

He paced slightly as he glared around the room at the stupid markings of the ancestors he couldn't care less about. They didn't have the right to be buried alongside he brother. None of his family did. He wasn't one of them, he just was good at pretending to be.

"They thought this would help, they think any symbolic thing about death will help but they're just stupid, childish idiots who didn't know what it felt like to lose someone they actually cared about." He ranted, his voice going louder with each word. "If they cared they would've thought about what you'd like to see if you saw your own funeral, but none of them cared. Mum and Dad loved the attention the death of their child gave them! Wes, it was sick."

"They didn't care," Soul suddenly roared to the grave. Just like when he was a kid and he's unload to Wes as he sat on his bed and listen to him rant and roar about things, nodding along and taking it all in before offering advice. It was the same, but now he was talking to a stone, not his brother. "They didn't love you enough to know what the pain of losing you felt like!" he went on. "Every prayer or fucking crypt doesn't make you any less dead. All it does is mask what we're feeling, gives something to see they represents you when we miss you but guess what!? It's not you! It's just a fucking rock."

Soul breathed heavily as he stared at the stone before approaching it once again. Letting his fingers run over the cold rock that represented his brother. "I'm so sorry, brother." He murmured again. "But I tried. And I'll… I'll come to see you more now. Yeah, maybe this isn't what we wanted it to be like when I got older," he chuckled brokenly. "But it'll have to do. I'll come again soon, Wes. Real soon."

He wiped a tear that slipped from the corner of his eye as he ducked his head and made his way from the crypt, except there was people blocking the entrance.

Soul stopped. His mouth dropped open as the man before him dropped the bouquet of flowers in his hand to clutch the woman at his sides shoulder. They both stood staring at him with their mouths agape, looking from the grave to him. They'd heard everything he just said, the look on their faces said it. And they were the last people Soul ever wanted to see at a place such as this. They were the last people on the planet he would've wanted to hear what he had just said.

"Soul," his father said in awe as his mother let out a small cry.


	14. "You Knew"

Soul stormed into the apartment with Maka following frantically behind him. Soul threw his coat down roughly on the couch. She saw them, he knew she did. She knew it was his parents, she couldn't deny it. What would you expect, a woman with pure white hair cascading down her back and a man with dead crimson eyes? Of course she knew and she let them in. They heard every word he'd said, every single word he'd spoken to his brother grave they heard. The words he never wanted anyone on this earth to ever hear, but his brother, was heard by the two people he hated the most.

And it was Maka's fault.

"Soul, please let me just explain," she cried as she followed him into the living room where he paced in front of the couch. He did his best to ignore her but she wasn't making it easy. She was just making things worse.

"Soul, just let's talk about thi-"

He snarled in annoyance and whipped around to face her, grabbing her shoulders and lowering his head so that his eyes were on line with hers.

"Don't," he growled through gritted teeth. "Just don't."

"Soul," she said brokenly. "Why?"

He gave her a dark look before releasing her, falling a few steps back. "Because it was your fault," he sneered at her, watching as her eyes grew wider at his accusation. "You knew. You knew it was them and you still let them in, didn't you?" he grew angrier when she didn't reply. He took a step closer to her. "Didn't you?!" Maka cringed and broke, throwing her hands up in defeat.

"Yes. Yes, I knew! I just thought it would help you! I thought if-if they knew what you were feeling it would h-help."

Soul laughed, the sound was dry and harsh. "How would you know it would help?" he tried to reason with her. "Maka, I told you what happened with Wes. Not them. You know absolutely nothing about them."

Maka tilted her chin up. "I know enough," Soul scoffed.

"No, you didn't know enough. You knew the good parts about them. You didn't know enough to know that we could never make amends. We will never make amends. Maka, they think I killed their child! Wes! Their favourite, perfect child was killed by their fucking mistake!"

Soul was yelling now, but he didn't care. He was just so angry. He haden't been this angry in a while and he never expected it to be because of Maka but it was. She'd gone too far this time.

"Soul," she tried to console him. "I-I was trying to help," she stuttered feebly as she made her way forward to cup his face with her hands to make him too at her. His eyes that were usually so kind or teasing were so full of anger. It broke her heart to know that anger was directed at her. "I didn't know, I thought it would help you."

Soul shook his head slowly and pulled her hands from his face, falling a few steps away from her. He felt no guilt as he watched her face fall.

"I was trying to help you," she said again, "Because you helped me."

His head snapped up from where he had been rubbing his jaw angrily to glare at her. "So you did this out of gratitude?" he asked in disbelief.

Maka's eyed widened and she shook her head. "No, Soul-"

"So this mistake," he went on as he made his way towards her slowly. "Wasn't even because you really wanted to help me. This happened because you wanted to pay me back!?"

"Soul! No, never! That's not what I meant!"

"No, Maka that's exactly what you meant," he snapped at her sharply. "I am very aware that you've had a hard life but you don't need to pretend that you understand everyone who has a dysfunctional family. Especially mine."

Maka's eyes narrowed. "I never said I did!" she snapped before composing herself. "Did talking to your brother help, Soul?" she asked suddenly.

Soul's eyes narrowed into slits. "Don't ask about my brother, Maka. Not after the shit you pulled today." He grabbed his coat off of the couch before making his way to the door. Maka grabbed his wrist firmly as he tried to pass her. He glared down to sneer at her. She didn't even flinch.

"Soul, I know you're angry," she said sharply. "But don't do this. Don't leave like this, let's just talk-"

"No, Maka," he said firmly as he pulled his arm roughly from her grip. "I'm done talking. I don't want to say things that I'll regret." Maka fell a step back.

"Then what are you thinking?" she asked as he made his way to the door. "What are you thinking of me right now?"

Soul paused as he rested his hand of the door knob before he left, before muttering what he'd restrained from saying, knowing that Maka would hear it, knowing what it would do to her.

"You betrayed me, Maka. You were the one person I didn't think would, and you did."

And then he left.

Maka was speechless. She betrayed Soul. The one person who truly understood her for who she was, liked her for who she was, said she betrayed him. She placed a hand on her forehead as she struggled to breathe.

"He's never going to forgive me," she managed between gasps.

She couldn't talk to anyone without revealing Soul's secret so she just had to suffer alone.

She sighed audibly and sat on the couch before burying her face in her hands. When she saw a woman with white her and a man with crimson eyes of course she assumed they were Soul's parents. Holding a bouquet of flowers and solemn expressions as they headed toward the crypt of which Soul stood. She jerked forward to stop them but froze thinking that maybe this would be good for Soul. Maybe if they reunited in the place Wes lay they could make amends and become a family again. Her heart stopped beating as she saw Soul almost run from the crypt, barging the man from his way before grabbing Maka by the elbow and pulling her away with him. The man and woman's voices followed behind them but Soul didn't slow down, he sped up.

And here she was. Burying herself in self-pity and guilt as she awaited Soul's return. He didn't leave for long, but she stiffened when she heard the door click open and Soul's heavy and angry breathing. He was still mad.

"Soul," she began as she stood up but Soul just sighed and made his way toward the kitchen.

"Don't start Maka," he said in a tired voice, making anger steam in Maka's body.

"No, you don't start Soul," she snapped, making him sigh again before turning around to face her with a strained expression. "I've said sorry, over and over and you still won't forgive me. I didn't know enough to understand what I was doing, alright? How was I supposed to know that your parents were going to show up that day? You made it out like they didn't care about you brother so why would I think they were going to his grave?" she asked as Soul eyed her warily. She didn't stop there. "How could you blame me for everything, Soul? How could you be so heartless?!"

By the end of this she was yelling and breathing heavily. What she didn't expect for Soul to chuckle lightly as he eyed Maka almost pitifully before saying the words Maka would never, ever forget.

"Best way not the get your heart broken?" he said, making Maka's brows scrunch up in confusion. Soul just shook his head before answering his own question.

"Pretend you don't have one."

Then he shut his door.


	15. "Forgive Me"

Soul didn't come from him room for hours and hours, even when the sun came up and Maka was ready to go to school. Maka sat on the couch anxiously, nodding off sometimes as she awaiting for him to reappear so that she could apologise but he just never did. She buried her face in her hands as she stifled sobs. He was right. She went too far this time and she couldn't expect for him to forgive her so why should she burden him any more than she already has? This entire thing was a mistake from the start. Not only did she bury him in all of her problems but she made him dig all of his up again. He didn't need that. He didn't need her. She sighed before making her way to her and Tsubaki's room, packing the little she had and exiting the apartment quietly.

Soul sighed with relief as he heard the front door click shut. He thought she'd never leave. He felt guilty for making Maka catch the bus for school but like he could just walk out there like nothing had happened after last night. Soul had cooled off and knew he shouldn't have snapped at Maka like that but he haden't seen his parents in so long. He was just so overwhelmed with emotion, mostly anger that he had to let out. And Maka was just right there. And the fault was so easily put to her though he knew she wasn't to blame.

"Ugh..." he groaned into his hands. He had to get to school. He groaned again before laying back down in his bed and pulling his phone out. He dialled Blackstar's number before pressing the phone to his ear.

"Soul!" Blackstar all but yelled into the phone, making Soul wince. "Your God has being trying to get to you all morning! Where are you guys?"

Soul sighed before responding. "Yeah, yeah. Hey I'm not feeling too well today so will yo- Wait, what? Maka isn't there?" Maka had transferred to Soul and Blackstar's school because it made sense for Soul wouldn't have to travel all the way to her dump of school every day to just panic. She would easily be there by now.

"No, she always comes here with you, idiot. Or did you forget?"

Soul sat up abruptly on his bed, pressing the phone more firmly to his ear. "No, no, it's just… Truth is me and Maka had an argument last night and I – I said some things I shouldn't have. When I heard the door shut this morning I thought she was leaving for school but…"

Blackstar was quiet before responding in a more hushed voice. "What? What were guys were arguing about? You guys never argue."

Soul but his lip before snapping in response. "Is that really important right now?" he hissed before standing up and making his way stormily to Maka and Tsubaki's room. His heart leapt to his throat when he saw Maka's things packed and gone.

He pressed the phone to his ear again. "Star," he choked out. "All her stuff is gone. Packed. "Soul just growled before making a move to snap the phone shut. Blackstar seemed to expect this and spoke up.

"Wait!" Soul hesitated before pressing the phone back to his ear.

"What?"

"You know where she'll go," Soul's eyes furrowed in confusion before widening in realisation and dread. She has nowhere else to go but…

"Her Dads," he spluttered, pressing a hand to his forehead.

Blackstar growled through the phone. "When did she leave, Soul?"

Soul's voice caught in his throat as he fought to reply. "Not too long ago. A few minutes before I rang you."

"You might be able to catch her. You need to catch her Soul. She could screw this all sending the old man to jail thing up. She doesn't know what's she's doing."

Soul just hummed in agreement before slamming his phone shut. He threw on appropriate clothes rapidly before grabbing his jacket and keys and flying out the door.

Maka walked sullenly down the street that led to the side of down where she used to inhabit. This was the absolute last thing she wanted to do, attend her old school and live with her good for nothing papa, but what choice did she have? Soul made it very clear that she wasn't welcome anymore and who was she to deny that? She'd already stayed longer than she was welcome so why should she prolong the inevitable? She felt her breathe hitch in her throat as she heard a familiar rumble of a motorbike. No - No, he wouldn't…

"Maka," she heard his gruff voice gasp as he pulled up recklessly beside her, laying the bike down to stand in front of her, breathing heavily.

"What… the fuck… are you thinking?" he said between gasps, clutching her shoulders and hanging his head. Maka just looked at him in shock and confusion.

"Soul, what are you…" she trailed off and Soul looked up to her with eyes so full of regret it made her stomach clench.

"You really think I was just going to let you go?" he said as he brushed a strand of hair from her face, laughing with relief. Maka just shook her head again, confused.

"But, Soul last night, you said that…" he shook his head.

"I was upset," he said slowly, regret dripping from every syllable. "I was so… overwhelmed, seeing my parents like that and at Wes's grave," he choked on the last words before looking up again. "I was upset but that's no excuse for how I spoke to you. I – I crossed the line."

Maka shook her head, spraying tears. "No, no Soul – I crossed the line! You were right! I'm nothing but a burden to you – to everyone – and I'm done with being the girl was abused as a kid. I'm not your problem anymore."

She tried to walk away but Soul's grip on her wrist stopped her. She jerked to a stop before casting an angry glance back a Soul.

"Let go," she growled, Soul sighed.

"Maka, please. Just come back and we can talk!"

"Isn't that what I said last night to you!?" Maka reeled back to face him, making him fall a step back. Guild churned in her stomach as he heard the hurt in her voice.

"I know, Maka I wasn't very… Look I know, okay! But I understand I was wrong now, I do-"

"Soul, you don't understand," she interrupted, running her hand through her hair in distress before wrapping her arms around herself. A motion Soul haden't seen in so long but he knew what it meant. Horror twisted in his gut like a knife as he knew he was the one who caused this.

"You were right," she laughed weakly without humour. "I'm not good for this. For you. I can't do this if all I'm going to do is hurt people!"

"Maka, you're not hurting anyone." Soul roared as he gripped her upper arms. "My parents hurt me and I took it out on you. I know you think I'm some perfect being who does not wrong but I make mistakes too alright! And I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Maka looked at the man wide-eyed as he breathed heavily and looked desperately into her eyes. Why was he doing this?

"Soul, I-"

"Maka, please I don't want to-"

"Soul." Soul looked up abruptly and caught Maka's tentative smile.

"I want to go home now, Soul," she said softly, brushing his cheek lightly before making her way over to the motorbike that still lay on the floor.

Soul watched her motionlessly before following her in one jerky motion. Fighting the smile that played on his lips as he drove the two home.


	16. Nightmares

Soul shot up in his bed as piercing screams rang throughout the apartment.

There was a moment of disorientation before he realised it was Maka. It had been about 2 weeks since the incident with Soul's parent's and things haden't been the same between them since. Maka seemed more distant and careful around Soul as he grew even more protective. Tsubaki had more or less moved in with Blackstar since their relationship was going so great so she hardly ever slept at home anymore.

Soul shook off these thoughts as he jumped out of his bed and ran from his door. Maka's door was left open and she was thrashing on the bed. Her hair stuck to her face as sweat coated her skin, her back was arching on the mattress as she fought herself from whatever it was she was dreaming before plummeting back down onto the bed, crying and crying.

"I don't know!" she yelled in her sleep as Soul ran to her side and clutched her hand, crouching on the floor beside her head.

"Maka, Maka, shush," he tried to sooth her desperately but no avail. She just whimpered: "I don't know, I don't know," over and over. Soul shook his head and clutched her hand tighter. To that she released another shriek and started thrashing in fear again.

"I said I don't know!" she shrieked the loudest yet. A heartbroken sound left Soul's lips and he grabbed her shoulders and stood over her, shaking her roughly.

"Maka," he said sharply, though his voice wavered. "Maka, wake up."

That seemed to do it. Her cries lessened and she blinked open tried eyes, her bottom lip trembling.

"Soul?" she whimpered as she looked over at the face hovering over hers. Soul placed a knee on the bed and both hands clutched her shoulder firmly yet comfortingly.

Soul sighed with relief as Maka asked, shaking her head and sighing warily.

"You scared the life out of me," he mumbled, the adrenaline seeping from his body as he looked to the digital clock next to her bed. 03:48 am.

He cast his eyes back to Maka. She still looked in shock and suddenly, her hands shot up to grasp Soul's own shoulders, pulling him down to her.

"Maka!?" he said loudly, but his jaw snapped shut as he heard quiet sobs against his neck. He released a breath and sat up, bringing her with him. He pulled her into his lap and let her cry. Soul didn't ask what the dream was about and just rubbed her back as she cried, muttering sweet nonsense in her ear.

"Maka, shush, it's okay…" he just went on and on until Maka's cries subdued to small little hiccups and whimpers. As her eyes began to droop shut again Soul began to lay her back down. Maka's arms tightened around his neck as he tried to pull away to return to his own room.

"No, Soul… don't go," she muttered sleepily but desperately. Soul chuckled sadly in her ear and pulled away to look at her face. She was looking up at him, terrified.

"Maka, you need to sleep and so do I," he reasoned, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear and she whimpered again, shaking her head.

"Sleep in here?" she begged, already rolling to her side to make room. Soul sighed but complied, edging under to covers and lifting an arm up for Maka. She took the invitation and curled up at his side, resting her head on his chest and his arm wound around her waist to keep her securely against him.

"Thank you, Soul," she muttered. "Thank you."

"Shush," he whispered, kissing her hair and breathing in her scent. "Go to sleep, Maka. I'll be right here when you wake up."

"You promise?" she pressed and he chuckled, squeezing her waist.

"I promise." He let his lids droop shut and actually fell asleep the quickest he ever had ever since the day his brother died.

Soul blinked open heavily lids to see a pale cream ceiling and a questionable weight on his chest and legs. He frowned. My ceilings red… He looked down to his chest and raised his brows before smiling fondly.

"Oh yeah," he mumbled in realisation, remembering last night's events again. Soul's arms were both wrapped around Maka's small waist and her arm wound around Soul's torso. Their legs had tangled together in their sleep and the cover had edged down the bed, exposing Maka's smooth legs. Soul took a sharp intake of breathe and cast his eyes back to the girls face and shook his head fondly.

"You're really something, you know that?" he muttered with a chuckle and Maka groaned.

"Says you," she grumbled and looked up to the man with a small smile and Soul laughed lightly and just shrugged.

"You stayed," she said lightly as she looked up at the man. His hair was mussed up from sleep and stuck out in all directions yet he looked as handsome as ever. It was unbelievable. He chuckled lowly, making Maka's chest tighten at the sound.

"I said I would," he said, hugging her gently to his chest as she rested her head down again.

"I'm sorry about all this," she muttered, hiding her face in his chest as he stiffened.

"Don't be daft, Maka," he said, having a small episode of his British accent that made Maka feel a bit light headed. This man really did have it all. "I wanted too. I-" he cleared his throat and shook his head, making Maka look up.

"You what?" she asked. Soul just laughed, the sound rumbling deeply in his chest and Maka could feel the vibrations from it.

"I liked sleeping next to you," he said, resting his head back on the pillow to look at the ceiling. He spoke casually, yet Maka's stomach flipped.

"That was actually the best night's sleep I've had in a while," he admitted, grinning cheekily down at her. Maka just laughed and hit playfully at his chest, Soul caught her wrist before she made contact and pulled her up so her torso was resting on his own. She gasped as he did, her face now being mere inches away from his.

"What about you?" he asked huskily, amusement in his eyes as Maka gulped audibly.

"What about me?" she asked stupidly, and Soul chuckled darkly again making the breathe hitch in Maka's throat. Damn him.

"Did you like sleeping beside me also?" he asked, though now his voice was more serious and his face closer to hers.

Maka bit her lip before looking up at him more seriously. "Yes," she admitted. "More than… More than I could ever tell you."

"Tell me." He said simply and Maka shook her head, smiling gently.

"I hardly know what I'm feeling myself, Soul," she said but stopped short. Was that too much?

She peeked at the man through her eyelashes to see him looking at her in wonder. His eyes trailed down from her eyes to her lips and she read his intention perfectly. He looked back up at her eyes and made his decision. He nudged closer before pressing his lips gently to her own. Maka's eyes blinked shut at the sensation. How long had she been waiting for this?

The kiss was long and sweet. Soul being much more experienced in this therefore he took the lead and was the dominant one in this kiss. And boy, did he show it.

They pulled back a second to look to each other and Maka saw Soul's eyes darken before his lips planted back onto her own, harder than before.

She mewled in delight as his lips slanted against hers, finally. She tilted her head to deepen the kiss and Soul released a growl, a good to honest growl before flipping her over on the bed so that she lay beneath him, their lips never parting for a second.

He moved her lips with his hungrily and she responded enthusiastically, her hand drawing up to snake over his shoulders as her hands buried themselves in the hair above his neck. Soul growled lowly against her lips again and nipped at his lip with his sinfully sharp teeth before planting kisses over her cheek, then jaw, then neck…

"Guys?" I'm home!"

Soul and Maka shot up from the bed with wide eyes and Tsubaki's voice rang throughout the apartment. They looked to each other for a moment before bursting out laughing.

"Yeah, hey Tsu!" Maka called out happily as Tsubaki entered the room. She arched a brow at Maka sitting on the bed breathlessly and Soul stood beside it.

"Hey guys…" she said, a smile creeping over her face. "I was going to make some breakfast, hungry?"

She didn't wait for a reply as she winked at Maka and left the room, leaving the two to chuckle again. Maka stood to look up at Soul who grinned cockily down at her, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"So, what does this mean now?" she asked with a smirk, Soul just chuckled and hummed lowly as if in contemplation before kissing her forehead.

"It means you're mine now." He muttered against her hair. Maka just giggled breathlessly before pulling away to wrap her arms around his neck as his hands rested on her waist.

"And you're mine," she said before standing on her tiptoes for their lips to meet once again.


	17. The Next Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to carry on the story while Maka and Soul are together and getting more serious (marriage, kids, etc.) and if you lot get desperate for lemons then I'll do my best. But for now I'm going to focus on the proposal and marriage and children and all that shit.
> 
> In the previous Chapters Soul was 18 and Maka was 16. In this however, we are seven years ahead therefore Soul is now 25 and Maka 23. Saving any maths you need to do if their ages are a curiosity of yours.

~ 7 years later ~

Maka huffed as she wrested through the front door to her and Soul's apartment. Tsubaki had moved in with Blackstar years ago and they recently got engaged, so Soul and Maka remained in their old apartment they had got to know each other and saw no reason to ever move since the space and quality was so great. She placed her keys clumsily on to the side table beside the front door as she readjusted the grocery bags on her arms. She gave a quiet shriek of annoyance as one slipped down her arm again.

"You know, you could just ask for help."

Maka blew the strands of hair that fell over her face during her struggle to look at her long-time boyfriend Soul, who was leaning on the door frame to the kitchen looking at her with a shit eating grin through amused crimson eyes. If she thought he was attractive when she first met him then she was wrong. His hair was more tamed but still wild and a snowy white. His jaw was more taut and masculine with a small stubble that he near enough always shaved off due to Maka's complaints. His thin, boyish lips were almost forever pulled up in a sexy half-smirk but his eyes had never changed. They were as droopy as ever and that same unbelievably beautiful blood red wine colour.

Maka couldn't tell but Soul was thinking similar thoughts as he looked at her. Her ash blonde hair never changed except she now had a regular trim, so it fell elegantly down her back to sway gracefully past her hips. He's always loved her hair. Her cheek-bones grew more defined as she matured and went higher as she smiled. Her eye lashes grew longer and thicker, making her bright, cat like emerald eyes look even larger. Soul smirked again at her distressed form at their front door. She was beautiful.

Not that he's ever say that out loud.

Maka huffed again. "I literally just got through the door. I would have if you gave me a second."

Soul raised his eyebrows with a small chuckle. "Ah, I see. Need a hand, then?"

"Please."

There was the same light banter they had when they were kids as they scurried to the kitchen, they put away the items together, laughter rumbling though the apartment as they did so.

"I told you I could have come along," he chided as he placed the last item in a cupboard and closed it to eye Maka leaning on the sink.

"You were working," she shrugged. "Ever since you and your family made up and you joined your Dad's company you've been so busy! I'm not going drag you grocery shopping when I am completely capabl-"

"Capable of doing it yourself, yes I know," Soul interrupted her and rolled his eyes, chuckling when Maka shot him a glare.

They both bickered playfully as they made their way into the living room and fell onto the couch, they traded in the leather L-shaped couch for a more comfortable and warm foam-fur L-shaped couch. Soul rested his arm on the back of the couch, around Maka's shoulders as they sat and flicked on the television as Maka curled her knees up onto his lap, resting her head into his neck.

"Spoke to your Dad today?" he asked as he rubbed the back of her neck.

She sighed. "Yeah," she hummed. "Ever since he's got out of prison he's been better, he has been alcohol free ever since he came out with all that counselling, and two years is a long time to go without vodka for him."

Soul hummed lowly in understand and moved his hand up to play with her hair, he knew she liked that.

"What about you?" she asked, tilting her head up to look at his face, he turned his head down so that his eyes met hers. "How was your day?"

He 'pfft'ed and chuckled, pressing his forehead to hers. "It was fine," he said. "It was pretty shitty when I had to go to the company everyday but since my Dad said I could work from home it's been better."

Maka chuckled, drawing a hand up to run her fingers through his snowy hair, he tilted his head back with the movement when she did, a smile playing at his lips. "Who knew Soul Evans would work in a music company," she teased. "You were so defiant at first."

Soul scoffed. "Yeah, because it was my Dad asking. I never knew them two could ever change the way they did."

"They're nice people." Maka said and Soul nodded, not even hesitating like he did when he first started accepting his parents back into his life.

"Yeah, they're alright," he grumbled and Maka chuckled and kissed his jaw before snuggling into his side again.

"Oh, and Blackstar's suit fitting is on Wednesday," she said with a small yawn, Soul groaned and hung his head over the back of the couch.

"Ugh, go with me?" Maka chuckled and shook her head.

"Nope, I'm going with Tsubaki the same day for my maid of honour dress, and you're best man Soul, we can't not go. Anyways, it'll be fun!"

Soul cast her a wary look before smirking sheepishly. "Yeah, day out with the lads should be alright."

Maka giggled at his little British episode before standing. "You done working for today?" she asked as she made her way back to the kitchen.

"You know I don't work a minute past 6pm," he called over his shoulder from the couch as she started dinner.

"Yeah, yeah," she giggled over her shoulder. "Stir fry for dinner, the grocery's need to defrost." She called to him as she pulled out the ingredients.

Soul didn't reply. He stared at the television without actually seeing or listening to anything. Maka and he had been through so much together, with Blackstar and Tsubaki getting engaged and Liz announcing her and Kid's pregnancy it had him thinking maybe he and Maka were ready to move forward.

He rubbed his jaw idly as he dwelled on the thought. Could they do it? They got this far, what's to say they'd screw up marriage or a kid? Soul shook his head suddenly, his eyes widening. Jeez, what made him think about kids?! He was only debating whether or not he was ready to propose, but kids! Could they really pull this off?!

"Soul?"

His head snapped up as Maka stood in front of him, her eyes narrowed. "You alright?"

He smiled before pulling her down into his lap, she gasped in surprise before giggling like a school girl, making him chuckle and he hugged her to him more.

"I'm fine, Maka," Soul assured her as he pressed a kiss to her temple. Seven years later and she could still make his heart pound like this was their first embrace and she was his school crush. That did it, if she still had that effect on him, to make his heart race and his breathe hitch in his throat by such a simple and casual touch then that did it.

Now, where to get the ring... Thought Soul as he buried his smirking face in Maka's hair.


	18. Surprise

Soul sighed for the umpteenth time as he wandered through the jewellers along with Blackstar. Though it was the man at his side pissing him off, not the lack of suitable rings.

"Can't believe you finally grew a pair man," Blackstar yelled, slapping his back. Soul cast him a dry look before looking back down at the rings. After joining his Dad's company and climbing to his hard earned place in the company Soul earned some good money. He could afford anything he really wanted, though Maka was the only person who knew full well about how much money he actually earned working at a record label.

"Blackstar, can you just shut up for five minutes and help me?" he hissed, gesturing at the shitty rings on display. Please, he had 20,000$ coming from his ears, no way was any of this good enough for Maka! He didn't notice the way Blackstar's face dropped a little when he voiced his frustrations.

"Soul, you're overthinking this to a stupid extent," Blackstar sighed, taking a step away from the glass case that protected the precious rings. Soul looked up at Blackstar's serious voice, frowning slightly.

"What do you mean?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

Blackstar sighed again. "This is Maka, we're talking about." He said in exasperation. "Just because you grew up with the materials of life doesn't mean that that's what Maka is expecting you to give her! Just get her a ring that looks right. Quit eyeing the price tag and worrying that it's too cheap!"

Soul released a long breathe, hanging his head. "I can't think of another way to tell if it's the right ring, man."

Blackstar grinned, slapping his friend shoulder playfully again. "That's the easy part, my friend. You just need to find the ring that looks like it was made for her. Then you've got it in the bag."

Soul arched a brow at him but nodded anyways, looking at the set of rings with a different perspective.

They weren't that bad, he though idly. His jaw dropped open when his crimson eyes landed on a certain ring. It was different than the rest. The ring itself did not actually meet to make a circle, instead the band of the ring didn't meet and instead cradled the beautiful tear shaped diamond between them, one at the top of the diamond, the other at the bottom. It was simple yet stood out like a sore thumb. Just like Maka.

Soul nudged Blackstar somewhat aggressively, gesturing at the ring. Blackstar's lips curled into a grin at his friend's expression as he called the jeweller over.

Soul shook the rain off his coat as he entered the apartment, the ring case feeling like it weighed 100 stone in his pocket. He jumped when Maka came from the kitchen to greet him, suppressing the urge to grab the ring from his pocket.

"H-hey Maka," he stuttered and he hugged her in attempt to hide his face knowing she'd notice if he was being off.

Too late. She pulled away, frowning up at her boyfriend suspiciously. "You're acting weird," she stated. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!"

"Then why are you acting shady?"

"I am not actin-"

"Soul."

"Maka," Soul groaned, rubbing his face slightly. "I just had a long day at work, my Dad dragged me to the office and talked a load of paper work and shit and now I just don't know what world I came from because I blanked out of it that much." he lied.

At that Maka cooed and hugged her boyfriend again sympathetically, missing how he sighed with relief against her neck.

"Anyways, dinners on and the shower is that way," she said, pointing over her shoulder, Soul cast her a dark yet playful glance.

"Is that your subtle way of telling me I stink?" he asked dryly, making Maka giggle like a little girl.

"Yes," she nodded, falling a step back as he took a step towards her.

"Hmm," he hummed darkly, narrowing her eyes at her. "Not very subtle though,"

She squealed and ran around the couch, Soul rumbled with laughter and he pulled her over his shoulder and threw her onto the couch, pinning her wrists either side of her head.

"Careful!" she shouted but still laughed as he nuzzled her neck.

"Oh please, like I could ever hurt you," he muttered into her neck before pecking her lips and standing. Maka shook her head when he pulled off his shirt as he made his way to the bathroom.

Soul chuckled to himself as he closed the bathroom door, leaning over the bath to turn on the shower, he stood at the side as he awaited the water to turn hot when something caught his eyes. He frowned as he made his way over to the toilet, something pick was hidden behind it. He tilted his head before picking it up, his eyes widening as he realised what the object was.

It was a pregnancy test.

Luckily, he picked it up the wrong way around, the way Maka must have placed it. Quickly, he shut off the shower before pulling on his shirt and made his way from the bathroom, still not looking at test in his hand, too shocked to even anticipate the results.

He said nothing as he stepped into the kitchen, Maka had her back to him, turning off the stove with two steaming plates beside her on the counter.

"M-Maka," Soul choked out, his voice barley above a whisper.

"What is it, So-" She cut her self-off as she turned to see the pregnancy test in his hands, she immediately covered her eyes.

"Soul!" she yelped. "Don't tell me yet, have you looked?"

"Wha- No! I haven't looked, have you looked?" he cried.

"No! I was too scared, I was going to get you to look!"

"Well, I don't want to look! You look and you tell me."

"Soul, it doesn't work like tha-"

Soul placed test on the table and stood forward to grip her shoulders, looking her sternly in the eye.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" he asked, moving a strand of hair from her face. Tears pooled in her eyes.

"I-I was scared," she choked out, wiping at her eyes. "I've been acting so weird lately! I mean, look at me, I'm crying, I don't even know why I'm crying! I'm two weeks late, I was sick this morning, an-"

"Wait, you were sick?"

"It was after you left," she dismissed, she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand. "So, I called Tsubaki and she picked this up for me, it should be ready by now but I just couldn't bring myself to look. Whatever's on that test will change our lives, Soul."

Soul swallowed thickly before picking up to test and standing before Maka, quickly, he flipped the test so that the results were exposed.

Positive.

The results were positive.

Maka's eyes near enough popped out of her head as she pressed a hand to her mouth. Soul eyes remained on the little plus since on the pink test. Positive. There was a child growing inside Maka's stomach. His child.

"Soul, we're pregnant," she stuttered, a hand still pressed against her throat, she stumbled a few steps away from him. "We're going to have a baby."

"We're going to have a baby," Soul repeated in awe. Soul didn't even think when he formed the next words in his head.

"Soul, what are we goi-"

"Marry me."

Maka's mouth snapped shut before it dropped open again. She absorbed the words before again realising the situation. She sighed.

"Soul, no," she shook her head before sitting down at the table. "I'm not going to say yes just because we got pregnant. I don't want you to propose just because of this. I want you to do it out of actually wanting to marry me, not because it's the right thing to do."

"Maka," Soul breathed but she help her hand up.

"No, Soul I'm no-"

She trailed off as she watched Soul rummage through his pocket, pulling out a ring case. He didn't say anything, she tried to form a logical explanation as to why he would have this but only once formed in her mind.

"S-Soul," she choked out. He smiled sheepishly.

"Trust me, I wasn't planning on proposing like this," he told her, making his way forward to kneel before her place sat on the chair. A hand was pressed against her mouth as she looked down at him, the ring case in hand. "I was thinking a fancy dinner at a fancy restaurant, a whole speech prepared, but…" he grinned again, looking around the apartment.

"This is nice." He said, his eyes landing back on her face. "Doing this in our own home, the place we got to know each other and grow up together." He smiled breathlessly as he pressed his hand to her stomach. "The place we'll raise our child together."

Maka coughed a sob, her eyes turned up with happiness as he pulled his hand away to open the ring case. Maka's eyes widened with awe and the beautiful ring, she laughed a sob once more.

"Maka Albarn, you make me happier than I thought possible. More than I thought I could ever be." He choked out, fighting his own tears. "I can't thank you enough for all you've done but I can spend the rest of my life trying to make you feel as happy as you've made me." He smirked, taking a deep breathe before uttering his next words.

"Maka, will you marry me?"

Maka nodded her head immediately. "Yes," she gasped as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He pulled back and took her left hand, slipping the ring on, she laughed lightly at his expression before placing a hand over her stomach and pressing her forehead to his.

"I love you," she whispered and Soul swore his heart skipped a beat. He knew she loved him and she knew Soul loved her but they both almost never said it. To hear it was a gift itself.

"I love you too, Maka," he muttered back, before pressing his lips to hers.


	19. Unexpected

"Soul..." Maka groaned as she let her head hang back over the couch as Soul sighed, leaning on the doorframe.

"Again?" he asked and Maka whimpered and nodded, resting a hand on her swollen stomach. Soul chuckled good naturedly before walking over to her and helping her off of of the couch. She offered a tight smile before patting her stomach.

"Not long now," she muttered, looking up to smile so brightly at Soul it made his head spin. It had been eight months since Maka found out that she was pregnant and the entire pregnancy had been quite an adventure, never mind how much it added to Maka's beauty. Maka had confessed about five months in that she was worried that her pregnancy would make Soul fancy her less, but it did the opposite, he thought, she was practically glowing.

He led her over to the bathroom for her to do her business before making his way into the kitchen to fix himself up a coffee. His Mum and Dad were overjoyed to hear about his and Maka's engagement, and his mother actually burst into tears when he, without saying a word, slid a picture of the first scan of his child on the table before her, he swore his Dad teared up too.

They decided to leave the wedding till after the baby came. They were in no rush. Maka wasn't too keen on having her wedding day either being sick and moody or fat, and they wanted to concentrate on the pregnancy till the birth of their baby boy.

"'Kay," Maka said and she stumbled out of the bathroom, hand on her bulging stomach. "M'done, he sure is needy," she chuckled tiredly, rubbing her belly.

"Like his mother," Soul teased and he poked her cheek, she swatted his hand away playfully.

"Shut it, Snow White," she shot back, Soul just shrugged as he helped her sit back down to sit beside her, lacing his fingers behind his head and closing his eyes.

"Whatever, Fatty." He said nonchalantly, grunting as Maka thumps him in the chest.

"So, what do you want to do today?" Maka asked as Soul rubbed his sore chest. She'd been on maternity leave since her sixth month and Soul's Dad suggested he be with her through the pregnancy, so he was by her side every step of the way.

"Anything you want. Or, capable of…" he said looking at her form jokingly, making her shake her head at him with a smile.

"Oh be quiet, we can go for a walk? Or maybe we could go visit Star and Tsu! Oh, or mayb-" She cut herself off to take a sharp intake of breathe through her teeth, her hand flying to her stomach.

"Ah," she squeaked, sitting up straighter to massage her stomach as Soul leaned towards her, his eyes narrowing.

"Are you okay? What's wrong? Is he okay? Are you? Maka-"

"Soul." She cut him off, relaxing for a second before her eyes widened. "Soul, oh my god, Sou-"

"Maka, calm down, what's going on?" he asked as he grabbed her hands, she looked up to him with very frightened eyes.

"M-my water just broke." She choked out, looking down on herself before looking back to Soul's face.

Soul's eyes widened until they couldn't widen anymore, he jumped up off the couch to run a hand through his hair, looking down on her distressed form at loss at what to do.

"B-but, you're only eight months along! The baby isn't ready yet!"

"Soul, we don't really get a say in that matter!" Maka snapped. "He wants to come out n-now!"

He shook his head to himself, swallowing his own fears to crouch down before her and take her face in his hands.

"Hey, hey," he muttered, making Maka's eyes loose some of their stress to look into his crimson orbs, her own softening slightly. He smirked before running his thumb over her cheekbone. "We're gonna have a baby."

Maka coughed to hide a sob, her lips pulling up into a bright smile before her hand dropped down to her stomach. "Little Leon, eh?" she muttered, looking down to her stomach. "Can't wait to meet him."

Soul released a half cry, half laugh as he smiled at her. "Me too. Now, we need to get you to the hospital."

Maka nodded before trying to pull herself from the couch when another contraction hit her, making her fall back into the couch in a huff.

"They're not that-" she gasped. "Far apart, are they?"

Soul shook his head before pulling her off the couch, grabbing her favourite pillow off of the couch, his keys and phone before guiding her to the door.

"You'll be fine sweetheart, we just need to get you to the hospital," he soothed her as he locked the door behind him.

"Hey, did we miss it?!" Blackstar yelled as he reeled around the corner where Soul was pacing in the hospital corridor outside of Maka's room. Soul's head snapped up to sigh with relief at the sight of Blackstar and Tsubaki coming towards him.

"No, you didn't miss anything, I just came out while the doctor inspected her to get some air…" Soul stopped as they reached him, dropping his eyes to gaze at the floor in awe. "Man, I just can't believe this is happening now."

Blackstar chuckled before slapping his friends shoulder, Soul looked up to grin at him. "Ready to be an uncle?" Blackstar barked a laugh.

"I was born ready, man!" he laughed before turning to pat Tsubaki's stomach gently. "You're lad will have two baby cousins when the twins are born." Tsubaki giggled.

Soul smirked before shaking his friend's shoulder. "Alright man, go wait for Kid and the girls, will ya? I need to get back to Maka." Tsubaki gave him a quick hug before they both rounded the corner once more.

Maka was leaning back heavily in the bed, her pillows stacked behind her as she looked up to smile at Soul as he walked back in to sit beside her, pressing a kiss to her temple.

"Star and Tsu made it here?" she asked, holding his hand as he nods.

"How long did the doctors say?" he asked, Maka was about to reply before another contraction hit, only finding the breath to reply afterwards.

"That's the thing," she gasped. "He's a month early but he wants to come out soon, I'm eight centre metres dilated, so not long now, the contractions are coming on fast too, they're getting worse."

Soul hummed sympathetically as she screamed as another contraction came.

Another hour passed until Maka finally dilated ten centre metres, after an hour of screams, hair pulling and the constant: "You did this to me" complaint till she finally got to push. It was ultimately to most amazing, terrifying moment of Soul's life. He stuck by her head at her request, but preferred to be here for her at this moment anyways. His hand ached in hers and her screams would have hurt his ears if his blood haden't been pounding so loud in them.

It took no longer than 15 minutes but it felt like hours till his child was born.

Maka collapsed back into the bed and Soul stroked her hair from her face before kissing her temple.

"You did amazing," he whispered before looking up to see his son. The doctor's expression was troublesome, looking down on the tiny baby in his hands. Soul frowned and the breathe caught in Maka throat as the baby was whisked out of his hands and to the back of the room where an small oxygen mask was pressed to his face.

"W-what is it?" Maka asked, sitting up despite Soul's attempts to make her lay flat. "Why isn't he crying?"

The doctor checked over her before looking up. "The baby is having trouble breathing since it was born so early, our team is trying to get oxygen in their lungs to get their blood flowing and to make them stable." Soul's breathe hitched as dread gnawed in his stomach though he kept his expression neutral for Maka. Maka nodded before casting a scared glance to Soul, who opened his mouth to assure her when a loud, high pitched cry cut through the air.

Soul had never in his life felt relief such as that in his life.

Maka released a small cry as she looked over to the other side of the room where a kind looking nurse wrapped up their baby and placed a small hat on his head to walk over to the couple.

"Do you want to meet your daughter?"

Wait. Daughter?

Soul released a small laugh that sounded more like a cry when the nurse rested his new born daughter in his arms. The surprise made the moment more special and he wouldn't replace her for anything in the world.

Maka smiled as tears streamed down her face as she looked on her daughter face in her finace's arms. She was so tiny Maka thought just by stroking the white tufts on her head she might break. When the little girl opened her eyes Soul and Maka almost fainted with the love they felt. It seemed she had also inherited Soul's crimson eyes as well as his stark white hair but she had gained the almond shape of Maka's eyes as well as her lips and nose. She was beyond perfect in her parents eyes.

"A daughter," Maka murmured as Soul tucked her into her own arms, she laughed gently as the babe looked up at her in bewilderment.

"We didn't have any names for a girl," Soul muttered back as he gazed at his daughters face, a look of love Maka had never seen before present in his eyes that made her heart clench before she looked back down to her baby who began to cry once more.

"Well, I chose Ben and you were going to go with that," she whispered as she looked back up to her finace's face. "So you pick. Whatever you chose I will love no matter what."

Soul smiled up at her before looking back to the baby in her arms. His baby.

"How about… Amara." He said reluctantly. Maka smiled and her green eyes lit up as the name seemed to feel perfectly right for the piece of perfection in her arms.

"Amara," she repeated, loving the sound of the name on her tongue. "Where did you hear that?"

Soul shrugged before drawing up his hand to brush the tufts on his daughters head. "It was my Mum's twin sister's name." he told her. "She died when my Mum was only fifteen in a car accident I think, but I always thought that name was beautiful."

Maka grinned as a few more stray tears fell down her face. "It's perfect, Soul. She's perfect."

Soul chuckled as he rested his head on top of Maka's. "Yah, she is. Our little girl."

Maka nodded before tilting her head up to press a small but sweet kiss to Soul's lips before they both looked back down to their daughter's face as she fell asleep.


	20. Bond

Soul suppressed a groan as he looked over to the clock at his bedside. 3:47 am, and Amara was crying. Loud. He turned over to look to Maka, who was groggily opening her eyes. He released an almost in audible sigh before pressing a kiss to her forehead, pushing her back down to the pillows.

"Go back to sleep," he whispered before pulling away and throwing his legs over the bed, standing in just his sweat pants and throwing the t-shirt he had worn the day before to head out of the room.

"Give her a kiss for me," Maka murmured as he pulled open the door, burying her face back in the pillows. Soul smiled and didn't reply, instead walking steadily to his crying daughter's room.

Her door was left open, he was met with the dim glow of the butterfly night light on her wall and her standing upright in her crib, crying louder for attention as her Dad enters the room.

"Hey, hey," he muttered, putting his hands under her arms before picking her up, bringing her to his chest. "What's all that noise for, eh?"

She did quiet somewhat, but there were a few loud yells that Soul shushed patiently.

"Shush, Mara, shush," he cooed gently, swaying her in a comforting motion as he stroked the back of her head, her wispy hair going through his fingers as she dropped her head onto his shoulder.

"You need to give your Mom a chance to sleep, kid," he murmured to her, her cries quietening into whimpers as he spoke before crying out loudly once more.

"Aw, baby, c'mon now," he whined, walking from the room and heading to the living room, the couch was full of baby toys and such therefore he sat on the piano bench beside the balcony since his piano was moved there when the room it was kept was used to store Amara's belongings.

He sat her on his knee and she quietened, arching her neck to look at him curiously, he chuckled before turning her around and standing her up on his lap to which she giggled at. Soul laughed gruffly at the sound she made, bouncing her lightly as she tried to keep her balance.

"You'll be walking in no time, won't ya?" he muttered to her, and she laughed once more. He smiled before bringing her to his chest again. She may only be turning one in a few weeks but she had to be the cuddliest baby ever. She put her small arms over his shoulders and rest her head there, Soul's heart hammered with the love he felt for her when she did things like that. He hugged his child to him before standing once more, heading over to the kitchen to make her some milk to try and get her to sleep again.

"Alright, here we go baby," he said as he placed her in her chair and walked over to the fridge. He pulled out the bottle Maka had made the previous day before heating it up, turning around as Amara started whimpering again.

"Can't turn around to five seconds can I?" he rumbled, sitting in the seat nearest to her and giving her his full attention. She whimpered some more before fidgeting in her seat, making Soul sigh before picking her up once more.

"Neediest baby alive, you know that?" he said as he pulled her from her chair and rest her on his hip as he turned to pour the milk into a clean bottle one handed.

After screwing the lid (not without difficulty) he moved back over to the living room to sit on the piano bench once more, the moonlight pooling eerily into the room from the window wall. He cradled the small child skilfully before bringing to bottle to her lips, which she opened eagerly. Soul rolled his eyes, he believes she could hold a bottle on her own, she'd a clever kid but she just doesn't want to.

"Lazy baby, ain't ya?" he told her as she looked up to him as she drank. "Just like ya Daddy."

She just continued to stare up at him as she drank from the bottle. Her crimson eyes, so wide and childlike reminded him so much of Wes it made his heart clench. He and Soul had shared the same coloured eyes but Souls were never as bright and wide. Amara must have gotten something from her late uncle after all.

He continued to support the back of her neck with the crook of his elbow while he fed her, still looking at her in awe. How could this perfect creature have been made by him? How could he have made up all those millions of cells to build something so beautiful and unimaginably perfect?  
But he knew the answer the moment the question entered his mind.

Maka.

It was her. And him. Both of them together created the piece of perfection in his arms and she wouldn't be there if it wasn't for Maka, just as she wouldn't if it wasn't for Soul. He sighed heavily before drawing the bottle away and burping her, smiling as he watched her eyes droop as she fought sleep.

"C'mon babes," he murmured before cradling to him again and standing, making his way back to her room.

She drooped slightly in his grip due to her nodding off, to which he chuckled at before securing his grip on her. As he entered her room he was met with the same calming glow of the nightlight as he walked to her crib and gently set her down. She snuggled into her blanket and Soul smirked, it reminded him of Maka. He stroked her white tufts softly before standing straight, his eyes not leaving her peaceful form.

"Soul?"

He turned as the quiet, melodic voice sounded from the doorway. Maka stood there with a warm, tired smile as she looked at her husband and daughter. She leaned on the door frame and tightened her robe around her before she made her way forward.

"You should be in bed, sweetheart," he rumbled as he wrapped his arms around her waist as she put hers around his neck and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.

"It took you a while to get her down," she replied before smiling. "But I see you two were just bonding." Soul chuckled before pressing a chaste kiss to her lips and looking back down on their daughter.

"Well, she's down for the night now so we should get a good night's rest," he commented, loosening his grip on her while she tightened hers.

"Or we could, I dunno," she said drawled as she drew lazy circles on his chest, her eyes cast down. "Take advantage of the fact that we're both pretty much awake and Amara won't be for quite a wh-"

She didn't get another word out as Soul pressed his lips hungrily to her own, Maka chuckled into their kiss before Soul swept her from the room and to their bedroom.

Guess they didn't sleep too long after all.


End file.
